1 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Liurary 


The  Publication  Committee  of  the  Grolier  Club 
certifies  that  this  copy  is  one  of  an  edition  of  three 
hundred  and  twelve  copies  on  hand-made  paper, 
and  three  copies  on  vellum,  the  printing  of  which 
was  completed  in  the  month  of  January,  1894. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/facsimileoflawsaOOnewy 


LAWS  AND   ACTS   OF  THE  GENERAL 
ASSEMBLY  FOR  THEIR  MAJESTIES 
PROVINCE  OF  NEW-YORK 


FACSIMILE  OF  THE 


LAWS  AND  ACTS 

OF  THE 

General  &flemblg  for  tljetr  iftflajefttes 
i&robmce  of  jE>eto=f)orfi 

ETC.,  ETC. 

At  New -York 

Printed  and  Sold  by  IV illiam  Bradford,  Printer  to  their  Majefties  King 
William  &  Queen  Mary,  1694 

TOGETHER   WITH    AN    HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION, 
NOTES  ON  THE  LAWS,  AND  APPENDICES,  BY 

ROBERT  LUDLOW  FOWLER 

COUNSELLOR-AT-LAW 


THE  GROLIER  CLUB  OF  NEW-YORK 

MDCCCXCIV 


Copyright,  1894,  by  the  Grolier  Club. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Publication  of  Bradford  Laws,  page  i.  Early  Laws  of  New- 
York,  ti.  Title  of  the  Aborigines,  Hi.  Dispute  about  Title,  iv. 
Common  Law  of  Colony,  v.  River  Maziritius,  vi.  Dutch  Char- 
ters, vii.  Population,  viii.  Claims  of  the  Dutch,  ix.  Pretensions 
of  the  E?iglish,  x.  Diplomatic  Intercourse,  xi.  The  "  Eendracht" 
Matter,  xii.  Boundaries  of  New  Netherland,  xiii.  Dispute  over 
Boundary,  xiv.  Boundary  Question,  xv.  Nahire  of  Settlements,  xvi. 
Dutch  Jurisprudence,  xvii.  Roomsch-Hollandsche  Recht,  xviii. 
Law  of  New  Netherland,  xix.  West  India  Company,  xx.  Judicial 
Establishment,  xxi.  New  Netherland  Constitution,  xxii.  Town 
Courts  of  the  Dutch,  xxiii.  Executive  of  New  Netherland,  xxiv. 
William  Kieft,  Director-General,  xxv.  Peter  Stuyvesant,  Direc- 
tor- General,  xxvi.  City  of  New  A  msterdam,  xxvii.  Burgher- 
Recht,  x xviii.  Schout  and  Schepens,  xxix.  Land  Law  of  New 
Netherland,  xxx.  Dutch  Pahvons,  xxxi.  Rensselaerswyck,  xxxii. 
Dutch  Stib-Eiefs,  xxxiii.  Jus  Patronatus,  xxxiv.  Land  Tenures, 
xxxv.  Dutch  Transports,  xxxvi.  Intestate  Succession,  xxxvii. 
Nahire  of  Settlements,  xxxviii.  English  Aggression, 
Dtike  of  York's  Patent,  xl.  New -York,  xli.  Actual  Conditions 
in  1664,  xlii. 

CHAPTER  II. 

The  Introductio?i  of  English  Laws,  xliii.  Jus  Coronce,  xliv. 
Conquered  Province,  xlv.  Common  Law  of  England,  xlvi.  Gov- 
ernor Richard  Nicolls,  xlvii.  Duke  of  York's  Patent,  xlviii.  Ar- 
ticles of  Surrender,  xlix.  Proprietary  Government,  I.  The  Lord 
Proprietor,  li.  Substitution  of  English  Law,  Hi.  Organization 
of  Government,  liii.  Hempstead  Meeting,  liv.  New  Code,  Iv. 
Dukes  Laws,  Ivi.  Treaty  of  Breda,  Ivii.  Dutch  Interregnum, 
Iviii.  Jus  Postliminii,  lix.  Treaty  of  Westminster,  Ix.  Governor 
Edmund  A  ndros,  Ixi.    Lietitenant  A  nthony  Brockholes,  Ixii.  Rep- 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


resentation  Demanded,  Ixiii.  British  Plantations,  Ixiv.  Governor 
Thomas  Dongan,  Ixv.  Accession  of  James  II,  Ixvi.  "Charter  of 
Liberty  s,"  Ixvii.  Dongan  Assemblies,  Ixviii.  Consolidation,  Ixix. 
English  Revolution,  Ixx.  Governor  Henry  Sloughter,  Ixxi.  Par- 
liament, Ixxii.  New  Constitution,  Ixxiii.  Nature  of  the  Govern- 
ment, Ixxiv.  The  Governor  of  the  Province,  Ixxv.  Assembly  of 
i6gi,  Ixxvi.  Personnel  of  the  Assembly,  Ixxvii.  Resolution  of 
1 69 1,  Ixxviii.  Effect  of  the  Resolution,  Ixxix.  Conflict  of  Opinion 
in  New  -  York,  Ixxx.  Modern  View  of  the  Resolution,  Ixxxi.  Ex- 
amination of  the  Resolution,  Ixxxii.  Importance  of  the  Resolution, 
Ixxxiii.  Governor  Benjamin  Fletcher,  Ixxxiv.  First  Public 
Printer,  Ixxxv.  William  Bradford,  Ixxxvi.  The  Laws  of  New  - 
York,  Ixxxvii. 


CHAPTER  III. 

Publication  of  the  First  Compilation  of  the  Laws  of  New  -  York, 
Ixxxviii.  Condition  of  Jurisprtidence  in  New-  York,  Ixxxix.  Laws 
of  England  in  Force  Here,  xc.  Law  of  Real  Property  in  New  -York, 
xci.  Dutch  Land  Law  Changed,  xcii.  Socage  Tenure  in  New- 
York,  xciii.  Conveyancing  in  New-  York,  xciv.  English  Man- 
orial System  Perpetuated,  xcv.  Statutes  of  Parliament,  xcvi.  What 
Statutes  Extended  Here,  xcvii.  Judicial  Establishment  in  New- 
York,  xcviii.  Self -Government  of  New -York,  xcix.  Government 
of  English  Plantations,  c.  Laws  of  the  New -York  Assembly,  ci. 
Record  Depositories,  cii.  Parliamentary  Procedure,  ciii.  Laws 
Operative  until  Disallowed,  civ. 

Notes  on  the  Laws  contained  in  the  facsimile   cv 

Appendices:     I.  Orders  in  Council   cxxxv 

II.  Table  of  the  Laws,  Confirmed  or  Other- 
wise ; ; . ' ; :  :<\   cxl 

III.  List  of  Sessions ;  and  Table  of  Laws  in 

the  later  Revisions   cxliii 

IV.  Material  for  a  Biography  and  a  Bibli- 

ography of  Bradford   cxlv 

Bibliographical  Note   cliii 

Announcement   clxii 


FACSIMILE  OF  THE  BRADFORD  LAWS  OF  1694. 


TABLE  OF  CASES  CITED. 


Albany  Fire  Insurance  Co.  v.  Bay  (4  N.  Y.,  1,  24,  31,  32),  pp. 
cxiii,  cxv. 

Bartow  v.  Draper  (5  Duer,  N.  Y.  Superior  Court  Reports,  130, 

142,  145),  pp.  xxxv,  xcix. 
Bayard,  Nicholas,  Trial  of  (14  Howell's  State  Trials,  471),  p.  cv. 
Blackman  v.  Riley  (138  N.  Y.,  318),  pp.  cxxxiii,  cxxxiv. 
Brick's  Estate  (15  Abbott's  Practice  Reports,  12),  p.  cxxvii. 
Brookhaven,  Trustees  of,  v.  Strong  (60  N.  Y.,  56,  68),  pp.  lxxxii, 

cxvi. 

Calvin's  Case  (7  Reports,  12),  p.  lxvi. 

Campbell  v.  Hall  (Cowper,  204),  p.  xlv. 

Canal  Commissioners  v.  People  (5  Wendell,  423,  446),  p.  lx. 

Constantine  v.  Van  Winkle  (6  Hill,  177,  181),  p.  lxxxii. 

Cosby  v.  Van  Dam  (Pamphlets  in  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc  Library  and 

in  State  Library  at  Albany,  N.  Y.),  pp.  lxxxi,  cxxxiv. 
Denton  v.  Jackson  (2  Johnson's  N.  Y.  Chancery  Reports,  320, 

324;  1  Hopkins,  288;  2  Wendell,  109),  pp.  xxiii,  xcix,  cviii. 
Duchy  de  Lancaster  (Plowden,  212),  p.  lxvi. 
Dunham  v.  Williams  (37  N.  Y.,  251  ;  36  Barbour,  136),  pp.  iv, 

xxxv,  xcix. 
Fletcher  v.  Peck  (6  Cranch,  87),  p.  xciii. 

Humbert  v.  Trinity  Church  (24  Wendell,  587,  624,  625,  626), 

pp.  lx,  lxxxii,  cxii,  cxiii,  cxiv. 
Jackson  ex  dem.  Woodruff  v.  Gilchrist  (15  Johnson's  Reports, 

89,  109,  113),  pp.  lxxxii,  cxiii. 
Jackson  v.  Hudson  (3  Johnson's  Reports,  383),  p.  xciii. 
Jackson  v.  Ingraham  (4  Johnson's  Reports,  163),  p.  xiv. 
Lessee  of  Levy  v.  M'Cartee  (6  Peters,  102,  108,  no),  p.  xcviii. 
Levy  v.  Levy  (33  N.  Y.,  97,  107),  p.  iv. 
Martin  v.  Waddell  (16  Peters,  367,  409),  p.  iv. 
Mitchel  v.  The  United  States  (9  Peters,  711,  748),  p.  xliv. 


TABLE  OF  CASES  CITED. 


Mortimer  v.  N.  Y.  Elevated  R.  R.  Co.  (6  N.  Y.  Supplement, 
898),  p.  iv. 

Patten  v.  N.  Y.  Elevated  R.  R.  Co.  (3  Abbott's  New  Cases, 
306,  322),  p.  cxxii. 

People  v.  Livingston  (8  Barbour,  253,  276,  293),  pp.  xciii,  cvii. 

People  ex  rel.  McDonald  v.  Keeler,  Sheriff  (32  Hun,  563),  p.  civ. 

Penn  v.  Lord  Baltimore  (i  Ves.  Sr.,  444,  451),  pp.  iv,  xlv. 

Re  Dublin  University  (Peckwell's  Cases  of  Controverted  Elec- 
tions, 43),  p.  lxxxiii. 

Re  Kuyter  &  Melyn,  pp.  xxi,  xxvi. 

Re  Brick's  Estate  (15  Abbott's  Practice  Reports,  12),  p.  cxxvii. 
Smith  v.  Rentz  (131  N.  Y.,  169,  175),  p.  xcix. 
Stockdale  v.  Hansard  (9  Adolphus  and  Ellis,  1,  107,  108,  139), 
p.  lxxxii. 

Story  v.  N.  Y.  Elevated  R.  R.  Co.  (3  Abbott's  New  Cases,  478, 

489,  491),  pp.  xxxv,  xcix,  cxxii. 
The  Banker's  Case  (Skinner,  601,  603),  p.  lxvi. 
The  Lauderdale  Peerage  (17  Abbott's  New  Cases,  439;  L.  R. 

10  Appeal  Cases,  692),  pp.  lxxix,  lxxxii. 
The  People  v.  The  Rector,  etc.,  of  Trinity  Church  et  al.  (22 

N.  Y.,  44,  50),  p.  c. 
Town  of  Southampton  v.  Mecox  Bay  Oyster  Co.  (116  N.  Y.,  1, 

7),  P-  I"- 

Van  Giesen  v.  Bridgford  (18  Hun,  73),  pp.  xxxv,  xcix. 

Van  Rensselaer  v.  Hayes  (19  N.  Y.,  68),  p.  xcvi. 

Van  Tienhoven,  Schout,  v.  Willem  Albertsen  (i   Record  of 

Burgomasters  of  New  Amsterdam,  238),  p.  xxiv. 
Van  Winkle  v.  Constantine  (10  N.  Y.,  422,  426,  428),  pp.  lxxxii, 

cxiii,  cxv. 

White  v.  Boot  (2  T.  R.,  274),  p.  lxxxiii. 
Woodruff  v.  Woodruff  (52  N.  Y.,  53),  p.  li. 


THE   LAWS   AND  ACTS  OF  THE  GENERAL 
ASSEMBLY  FOR  THEIR  MAJESTIES 
PROVINCE  OF  NEW-YORK. 


HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION. 


CHAPTER  I. 


HE  publication  of  the  laws  of  the  Province 
of  New -York  in  the  year  1694,  by  William 
Bradford,  "Printer  to  their  Majesties  King 
William  and  Queen  Mary,"  now  serves  to 


mark  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  New-York ;  for  it  not 
only  introduced  to  this  territory  the  art  of  printing,  but 
made  accessible  for  the  first  time  to  the  people  of  the 
province  laws  by  which  they  were  to  be  governed.  It 
is  quite  true  that,  long  prior  to  that  year,  laws  of  both 
domestic  and  foreign  origin  had,  under  the  proper  sov- 
ereign authority,  been  promulgated  in  New- York ;  but 
until  Bradford's  time  they  had  existed  only  in  manu- 
scripts deposited  either  with  the  village  communities  or  at 


EARLY  LAWS  OF  NEW-YORK. 


the  seat  of  the  local  government.  Hence  the  printing  of 
the  laws  by  Bradford  not  only  augmented  the  political 
authority,  but  greatly  conduced  to  the  order  and  conve- 
nience of  the  people  of  New -York.  Even  now,  after  the 
lapse  of  two  centuries  since  their  original  publication, 
these  ancient  laws  possess  no  little  significance  to  the 
student  of  institutions,  while  to  the  lawyer  they  have  not 
infrequently  a  practical  bearing  on  the  contentions  of  pri- 
vate litigants.  Between  the  institutions  of  the  past  and 
those  of  the  present  there  is  always  a  nexus,  sometimes 
invisible,  but  still  a  nexus  of  some  kind.  Few  institu- 
tions are  more  closely  connected  than  the  ancient  and  the 
modern  laws  of  New- York.  Yet  many  persons  are  apt  to 
think  that  the  laws  of  the  former  Province  of  New- York 
have  no  practical  connection  with  the  living  problems  of 
to-day.  Such  an  opinion  is  not  verifiable.  Indeed,  the 
more  the  subject  is  examined,  the  more  we  shall  perceive 
the  importance  of  the  legal  institutions  established  under 
the  early  sovereigns  of  this  territory. 

Any  complete  survey  of  the  jurisprudence  or  laws  of  the 
colonies  of  a  European  state  demands  the  examination 
of  both  the  juridical  theories  and  the  legislation  related 
to  the  subject ;  for,  as  has  been  well  said,  a  colony  is  not  a 
state — its  government  and  institutions  may  be  to  some  ex- 
tent autonomous,  but  they  are  essentially  ab  extra,  not  ab 
intra.  So,  before  any  real  government  may  be  established 
over  a  colony,  the  nature  of  the  title  of  the  sovereign  to  the 
soil  must  be  determined  by  the  law  of  nations.  In  that 
wonderful  partition  of  the  New  World  which  followed  the 
Columbian  voyages,  the  great  maritime  powers  proceeded 
upon  principles  still  figuring  in  jurisprudence.  But  as  in 
the  fifteenth  century  the  law  of  nations  scarcely  reached 
above  the  level  which  it  had  attained  in  Greece  or  Rome, 

ii 


TITLE  OF  THE  ABORIGINES. 


the  original  claims  of  the  Europeans  to  the  territories  of 
the  New  World  were  not  always  consistent  in  principle. 
Yet  in  one  thing  all  agreed — that  the  aboriginal  inhabi- 
tants had  no  conclusive  title  to  the  soil.  The  famous  bull 
of  Alexander  VI.,  issued  in  1493,  soon  after  the  return  of 
Columbus,  granting  to  Spain  all  lands  west  of  a  north  and 
south  line  drawn  a  hundred  leagues  west  of  the  Azores, 
was  not  conceded  by  England,  France,  or  Holland  to  be  a 
valid  source  of  title.  Even  Spain  did  not  found  her  pre- 
tensions solely  on  the  papal  grant,  while  the  other  powers 
agreed  in  the  doctrine  that  discovery  followed  by  actual 
and  continued  occupation  alone  conferred  title.  Thus  a 
refinement  of  the  Roman  law  relative  to  the  acquisition  of 
ownerless  or  derelict  property  (res  nullius)  by  possession 
(occtipatio)  was  at  last  permitted  to  solve  the  partition  of 
North  America  among  the  maritime  states  of  Europe.  I  n  Ancient 
the  assertion  that  two  factors  —  discovery  and  continued  c.viii. 
occupation  —  must  concur  in  order  to  give  a  valid  title  to 
American  territory,  no  other  power  was  more  strenuous 
than  England.  "  Praescriptio  sine  possessione  haud  valeat," 
asserted  Queen  Elizabeth  in  1 580 ;  and  such  assertion  was 
never  afterward  modified  in  principle  by  the  English  au- 
thorities. When  the  European  powers  had  thus  agreed 
upon  the  elements  which  conferred  title  to  American  terri- 
tory, new  difficulties  arose  in  their  application  —  difficulties 
which  still  lie  at  the  root  of  many  international  compli- 
cations. These  difficulties  involve  one  of  the  gravest 
problems  of  jurisprudence  —  what  constitutes  legal  pos- 
session ?  If  this  far-reaching  question  still  remains  difficult 
to  answer,  how  much  more  difficult  was  it  when  modern 
international  law  was  in  its  infancy,  or  when  England  and 
Holland  first  laid  claims  to  the  territory  now  embracing 
New-York  ? 


iii 


DISPUTE  ABOUT  TITLE. 


Mortimer 
v.  N.  Y. 
Elevated 
R.  R.  Co., 
6  N.  Y. 
Supplement, 


Levy  v. 
Levy,  33 
N.  Y.,97, 
107;  Dun- 
ham v. 
Williams, 
37  N.  Y., 
25 1 ;  Penn 
v.  Lord 
Baltimore, 
1  Ves.  Sr., 

444,  451 ; 
but  see 
Martin  v. 
Waddell,  16 
Peters,  367, 
409. 


The  ancient  dispute  about  the  original  title  to  this  terri- 
tory would  possess  little  practical  importance  were  it  not 
for  the  fact  that  it  lies  at  the  base  of  several  of  the  great 
presumptions  of  modern  jurisprudence.  Although  the  dis- 
pute was  definitively  settled  by  the  august  claimants  them- 
selves in  accordance  with  the  usages  of  nations  and  in  a 
manner  which  is  no  doubt  binding  on  modern  judicatories, 
the  solution  is  so  far-reaching  in  its  consequences  that 
even  courts  of  first  instance  are  occasionally  induced  at 
the  present  time  to  reexamine  the  titles  of  England  and 
Holland  to  this  territory  and,  as  if  the  question  were 
properly  cognizable  by  courts  of  justice,  to  pass  upon  its 
merits  in  suits  between  private  parties.  Thus,  in  a  case 
decided  as  late  as  the  year  1889,  the  Superior  Court  of 
the  City  of  New- York  held  that  the  Dutch — no  doubt 
meaning  the  States-General  of  Holland — never  had  a  valid 
title  to  their  territory  of  New  Netherland.  But  even  if  the 
question  is  within  the  province  of  judicial  arbitrament, 
such  decision  may  well  be  thought  to  conflict  with  other  and 
more  conclusive  adjudications.  The  case  cited,  however, 
certainly  possesses  great  interest,  for  it  serves  to  show  the 
importance  which  the  modern  lawyers  still  attach  to  the 
dispute  in  question.  The  reason  of  the  present  interest  of 
the  lawyers  in  this  ancient  contention  is  rendered  more 
clear  by  a  reference  to  the  juridical  results  which  are 
sometimes  presumed  to  flow  from  the  conflicting  claims  to 
this  territory.  If  the  English  were  originally  its  rightful 
sovereigns,  then  the  Dutch  law  never  obtained  here,  at  least 
so  as  to  entitle  it,  after  the  year  1664,  to  recognition  under 
the  principle  of  the  law  of  Christian  nations — that  the  law 
of  the  conquered  remains  in  force  until  expressly  abro- 
gated by  the  conqueror;  or,  in  other  words,  if  the  States- 
General  of  Holland  never  had  a  title  to  the  territory,  valid 


IV 


COMMON  LAW  OF  COLONY. 


by  the  law  of  nations,  or  recognized  by  the  English  gov- 
ernment, then  the  Dutch  imperium  was  never  rightfully 
exercised  here,  and  its  dominion  had  no  international  or 
legal  consequence.  At  least  such  are  some  of  the  results 
which  are  sometimes  deemed  by  lawyers  to  flow  from  the 
postulates  and  presumptions  of  jurisprudence. 

The  importance  of  the  dispute  in  question  has  been 
further  enhanced  by  the  literal  interpretation  sometimes  ac- 
corded to  the  early  English  commentators  who  accounted 
for  the  presence  of  English  law  in  the  English  colonial 
empire  by  a  figure  of  speech.  They  affirmed  that  Eng- 
lish law  obtained  in  those  English  colonies  acquired 
by  discovery,  because  it  was  carried  thither  by  the  colo- 
nists themselves,  although  it  was  said  to  obtain  in  those 
colonies  acquired  by  conquest  or  cession  only  when  im- 
posed by  the  legislation  of  the  conqueror.  This  account 
generally  corresponded  with  the  presence  or  absence  of  a 
lex  loci  of  English  origin,  and  hence  it  was  seized  upon 
to  account  for  phenomena  then  very  little  understood.  It 
is  no  doubt  the  fact  that  the  English  common  law  has  been 
set  in  force,  in  all  those  transmarine  possessions  of  Eng- 
land where  it  exists,  in  some  legislative  mode  only;  but  as 
such  mode  is  not  always  apparent,  the  figurative  account 
of  the  commentators  has  enabled  the  colonial  courts  to 
indulge  in  a  presumption  which,  while  it  has  answered  all 
practical  purposes,  has  nevertheless  magnified  the  original 
sovereign  title  to  the  soil  of  an  English  colony  to  a  posi- 
tion of  undue  importance;  for  it  is  equally  the  fact  that 
the  presence  of  the  English  common  law  in  the  Province 
of  New-York  may  be  explained  without  the  necessity  of 
resorting  to  figurative  formulae  of  commentators,  and 
without  the  necessity  of  even  determining  which  had  the 
better  title  to  the  province — England  or  Holland. 


RIVER  MAURITIUS. 

Without  presuming  to  pass  judgment  upon  the  merits 
of  the  ancient  and  high  contention  about  the  dominion 
over  this  territory,  we  may  be  permitted  to  outline  such  of 
the  facts  regarding  it  as  are  deemed  illustrative  of  the 
primitive  laws  and  jurisprudence  of  New-York.    In  the 
early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  Dutch,  by  virtue 
of  an  assertion  of  prior  discovery  and  occupation  under  the 
relating  to     rule  denoted,  claimed  the  entire  territory  lying  between 
History  of     New  France  and  Virginia,  the  sea-coasts  of  which  were 
i,  io,  ii.  '    said  to  be  between  the  40th  and  45th  degrees  of  latitude. 

In  the  year  1609,  a  ship  of  eighty  tons  burden,  flying  the 
Dutch  flag,  but  under  the  command  of  Henry  Hudson,  an 
Englishman,  first  sailed  up  the  great  river  now  known  by 
the  navigator's  name,  but  at  first  called  the  "Mauritius"  by 
the  Dutch.  This  ship,  belonging  to  the  Dutch  East  India 
Company,  had  been  despatched  on  a  voyage  of  discovery, 
and  for  the  purpose  of  finding  a  shorter  passage,  by  way 
of  the  northern  seas,  to  China  and  Cathay.  Verrazano, 
under  a  commission  from  the  French  king,  had  undoubt- 
edly touched  at  New- York  Bay  in  the  year  1524;  but  the 
French  title  lapsed  by  non-user,  and  not  until  about  the 
year  161 4  was  any  formal  occupation  of  the  region  adjoin- 
ing Hudson's  River  attempted.  Then  a  trading-fort  was 
built  by  the  Dutch  a  little  below  the  present  city  of 
Albany.  On  11  October,  1614,  the  States-General  by 
an  octroi,  or  charter,  granted  to  an  Amsterdam  company 
of  merchants,  who  had  already  actively  traded  with  the 
natives  on  the  river  Mauritius,  the  exclusive  privilege 
to  frequent  for  four  voyages,  within  three  years  after 
1  January,  1615,  the  newly  discovered  lands  "situated  in 
America  between  New  France  and  Virginia,  whereof  the 
sea-coasts  lie  between  the  fortieth  and  forty-fifth  degrees 
of  latitude."    This  vague  country  was  in  this  grant  called 

vi 


DUTCH  CHARTERS. 


for  the  first  time  New  Netherland ;  and  annexed  to  the  doc.  rei. 
grant  was  a  map  of  the  country  involved — the  so-called  N?Y.,!fn. 
"figurative  chart."  At  this  time  the  French  had  already 
made  good  their  title  to  Canada  and  Acadia,  while  the 
English  had  established  themselves  in  Virginia,  but  south 
of  latitude  400.  As  yet,  the  latter  had  made  no  perma- 
nent settlement  in  New  England,  which  they  also  claimed. 
Thus  the  Dutch  might  well  regard  the  country  described 
in  the  grant  of  1614,  as  vacuum  domicilium,  or  as  theirs 
by  the  law  of  nations. 

The  charter  of  16 14  having  expired  on  1  January,  16 18, 
was  not  extended,  and  trade  with  the  new  country  was  in 
a  manner  thrown  open  until  the  close  charter  by  the  States- 
General  to  the  Dutch  West  India  Company,  dated  3  June, 
1 62 1,  which  provided  that  none  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Netherlands  might,  without  the  consent  of  the  company, 
sail  to,  or  traffic  in,  the  countries  of  America  or  the  West 
Indies,  and  some  other  places  specified  in  the  charter. 
Until  the  English  conquest  in  the  year  1664,  the  Dutch 
West  India  Company  exercised  under  this  charter  the 
local  sovereignty  over  New  Netherland,  but  in  subordina- 
tion to  the  States-General.  The  organization  of  the  new 
company  met  with  some  delay,  and  it  was  not  until  1623 
that  its  efforts  were  directed  toward  colonization;  but  in 
that  year  it  despatched  an  expedition  which  planted  small 
settlements  at  Fort  Orange  (now  Albany),  Manhattan 
Island,  and  Walloon's  Cove.  The  settlers  were  at  first 
few,  and  we  know  little  of  their  affairs  until  1626,  excepting 
that  they  prospered  greatly.  In  the  years  succeeding  the 
first  formal  occupation  of  New  Netherland,  its  population 
rapidly  increased  in  numbers.  By  the  year  1625,  the 
Dutch  colony  on  Manhattan  Island  numbered  over  two 
hundred  persons,  and  in   1628  over  two  hundred  and 

vii 


POPULATION. 


seventy,  including  men,  women,  and  children.  By  1643 
this  same  colony  had  attained  to  between  four  and  five 
hundred,  while  the  colony  at  Beverswyck  embraced  about 
one  hundred  persons.  In  1652  New  Amsterdam,  on  Man- 
hattan Island,  had  a  population  of  eight  hundred,  and  in 
1656  of  one  thousand  ;  while  Staten  Island  had  ninety 
farming  colonists,  and  the  colony  at  New  Amstel,  on  the 
South  River,  about  six  hundred  souls.  In  1661  the  "  Five 
Dutch  Towns"  on  Long  Island  comprised  a  considerable 
population,  and  that  of  New  Amsterdam  had  attained  to 
some  fourteen  hundred.  But  in  1664  the  entire  population 
of  New  Netherland  did  not,  by  the  highest  estimate  of  the 
statisticians,  exceed  ten  thousand  persons,  living  in  some 
thirty  scattered  villages  and  towns,  or  else  on  flourishing 
farms  or  bouweries  adjacent  to  them.  Despite  the  paucity 
in  numbers  from  1623  to  1664,  the  occupation  of  the 
country  by  the  Dutch,  under  a  claim  of  title  and  under  an 
organized  government,  was  uninterrupted  and  continuous. 

During  the  same  period,  the  population  of  the  English 
in  New  England  and  Virginia  had  attained  to  greatly 
superior  numbers.  Even  in  1645,  New  England,  although 
settled  contemporaneously  with  New  Netherland,  contained 
more  than  fifty  thousand  English,  while  the  English  settle- 
ments south  of  the  Delaware  by  1660  held  probably  as 
many  more  subjects  of  England.  It  was  natural,  therefore, 
that  the  English  should  feel  some  practical  regret  at  the 
intervening  Dutch  colonies  on  the  Hudson  and  Delaware 
rivers  and  their  confluents.  But  up  to  the  year  1630,  the 
English  settlers  made  no  encroachments  on  the  territory 

Regents' 

Reports  claimed  by  the  Dutch.  During  the  entire  history  of  New 
New-York    Netherland,  the  greater  part  of  the  population  actually  lived 

and  Penn- 
sylvania     either  on  Long  Island,  or  on  the  shores  of  Hudson's  River, 

Boundary, 

176,403.     Newark  Bay  (Achter  Cul),  and  the  lower  Mohawk.  While 

viii 


CLAIMS  OF  THE  DUTCH. 


it  is  generally  conceded  by  jurists  that  the  discovery  and 
subsequent  settlement  at  the  embouchure  of  a  river  pene- 
trating far  inland  give  the  right  of  occupancy  and  ulti- 
mately of  sovereignty  to  the  whole  country  drained  by 
that  river,  yet  international  complications  usually  arise 
concerning  the  extent  of  the  territory  thus  occupied  and 
acquired.  The  case  of  New  Netherland  presents  no  ex- 
ception to  the  usual  course  of  events.  Although  the  ori- 
ginal right  of  the  Netherlands  to  the  territory  of  New 
Netherland  may  not  be  altogether  free  from  difficulties, 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  for  all  juridical  purposes  it 
soon  ripened  into  a  title  valid  by  prescription,  or  valid  by 
virtue  of  the  subsequent  course  of  conduct  upon  the  part 
of  England;  for,  however  irregular  a  title  by  settlement  CoLHist 

N.  Y.,  II 

of  a  new  country  may  originally  be,  it  is  often  perfected  324. 
by  enjoyment  through  a  reasonable  lapse  of  time. 

The  Dutch  asserted  in  substance  that  the  claims  of  the 
English  to  the  territory  called  New  Netherland  were 
neither  self-consistent  nor  in  conformity  with  the  law  of 
nations.  The  English  title  was  based  both  on  the  dis- 
coveries of  the  Cabots,  under  Henry  VII.,  and  on  actual 
occupation.  It  will  be  recalled  that  such  original  occupa- 
tion consisted  of  the  settlements  in  Virginia  in  the  year 
1584,  and  immediately  following  the  year  1607;  and  in 
New  England  in  1607,  and  again  in  1620.  The  title  by 
virtue  of  the  discovery  of  Sebastian  Cabot,  who  merely 
sailed  along  the  coast  of  America  as  far  south  as  380,  was 
controverted.  That  he  ever  touched  at  any  point  south  of 
440  40'  has  been  denied.  Indeed,  whether  such  a  voyage 
as  this  could  afford  in  itself  a  sufficient  basis  for  a  title  by 
discovery,  might  well  be  questioned.  Thus  the  States- 
General,  while  conceding  the  validity  of  the  English  title 
to  the  American  territories  actually  occupied  by  the  latter, 

ix 


PRETENSIONS  OF  THE  ENGLISH. 


Doc'irt  denied  their  right  to  the  territory  embraced  in  New  Neth- 
n.  y.,  ii,  erland  by  virtue  of  either  discovery  or  occupation.  It 
was  said  that  the  original  settlements  of  the  English 
were  at  too  widely  separated  points  of  the  sea-coast  to 
carry  a  title  to  the  intervening  territory  of  New  Neth- 
erland.  So  the  States-General,  conceding  to  the  English 
the  utmost  limits  of  territory  consistent  with  either  of  the 
Doc.  reL  English  settlements,  claimed  for  themselves  a  jurisdiction 
Sly.,?  extending  to  the  head  waters  of  the  streams  settled  by 
564!  29°''  Dutch  subjects.  The  conflicting  pretensions  of  the  Eng- 
lish were,  however,  as  early  as  1606,  made  apparent  by  the 
terms  of  the  patents  to  the  different  companies  of  English 
adventurers  in  those  regions.  The  dispute  between  the 
nations  therefore  resolved  itself  into  one  concerning  the 
legal  effect  of  the  widely  scattered  English  settlements, 
and  had  it  not  been  for  an  indisputable  doctrine  of  in- 
ternational law, — that  an  actual  settlement,  followed  by 
tacit  acquiescence  on  the  part  of  the  nation  claiming  by 
discovery,  bars  its  claim  to  disturb  the  settlement, — the 
title  of  the  States-General  to  New  Netherland  would  for 
later  juridical  purposes  have  been  involved,  perhaps,  in 
greater  uncertainty  than  it  was.  The  controversy  seems 
to  have  been  solved,  therefore,  by  the  law  relating  to 
an  acquisition  acquired  by  actual  settlement,  followed  by 
acquiescence,  rather  than  by  that  branch  of  the  law  of 
nations  relating  to  acquisition  by  discovery,  or  even  to 
Doc.«i.    acquisition  by  occupancy — the  terms  occupation  and  set- 

n.  V.,  i,    tlement  denoting  contrasted  conceptions  of  the  jurists. 

486;  11,  0  r  J 

id.,  324.  While  the  acquiescence  of  the  English  for  half  a  century 
was  in  connection  with  other  matters  sufficient  by  the 
law  of  nations  to  determine  the  Dutch  title,  it  was  in 
all  probability  quite  insufficient,  when  standing  alone,  to 
bar  the  English  claim.    Thus  it  was  that  the  forcible 

X 


DIPLOMATIC  INTERCOURSE. 


subjection  of  the  Dutch  dominion  here  by  the  English 
in  1664  was  excused  by  the  latter  with  some  degree  of 
plausibility,  although  the  title  of  the  English  to  this 
province  finally  rested  on  a  formal  cession  by  the  States- 
General,  thus  preserving  the  treaty  rights  of  Dutch  sub- 
jects, including  the  integrity  of  the  status  of  the  Dutch 
antenati  of  the  province. 

The  diplomatic  intercourse  concerning  the  opposed  claims 
to  New  Netherland,  carried  on  by  the  respective  authori- 
ties of  the  two  nations,  is  not  obscure,  and  may  be  readily 
outlined.  In  the  year  1609,  the  Netherlands  had  become 
an  independent  power,  having  completely  escaped  from 
even  the  hegemony  of  Spain  by  the  ending  of  the  forty 
years'  war.  Consequently  at  the  time  of  Hudson's  dis- 
covery and  the  subsequent  occupation  of  New  Netherland 
by  the  Dutch,  the  States-General  was  entitled  to  be  re- 
garded as  the  equal  of  England  in  the  family  of  nations. 
The  correspondence  shows  that  in  the  year  162 1  the  Eng- 
lish ambassador  at  The  Hague  was  directed  to  represent 
to  the  States-General  that  the  Dutch  settlements  in  New 
Netherland  were  in  conflict  with  the  right  of  the  King  of 
England,  who,  jure  pritncz  occupationis,  had  good  and 
sufficient  title  thereto.    The  representation  was  accord-    CoL  Hist 

N.  Y.,  Ill 

ingly  made  by  the  ambassador,  who  claimed  that  the  tran-  6/7,8. 
quil  and  plenary  possession  of  the  whole  country,  north  of 
Virginia,  was  vested  by  patent  in  several  private  persons, 
subjects  of  the  King  of  England,  whose  title  was  not  to  be 
contradicted.  A  formal  demand  was  made  that  the  Dutch 
trade  and  occupation  of  this  country  be  prohibited.  No 

ScCj 

formal  reply  to  these  demands  appears  in  the  Holland  however, 
documents,  but  it  is  apparent  from  the  course  of  subse-  cohHist. 
quent  events  that  the  English  claim  was  resisted  from  its    so,  s8. 
inception.    At  least  the  Dutch  went  steadily  on  with  their 

xi 


THE  "EENDRACHT"  MATTER. 


project  of  colonization.  In  1632  a  Dutch  ship,  the  "Een- 
dracht,"  clearing  from  New  Netherland  and  driven  into 
the  English  port  of  Plymouth  by  stress  of  weather,  was 
attached,  at  the  suit  of  the  council  of  New  England,  for 
illegally  trading  within  the  dominions  of  the  King  of  Eng- 
land. This  incident  had  marked  significance,  for  the  am- 
bassadors of  the  States-General  presented  at  once  to  King 
Doc.  rei.      Charles  I.  of  England  a  remonstrance  which  prematurely 

Col.  Hist. 

n.  y.,i,  56.   placed  the  Dutch  title  to  the  new  country  alone  upon  the 
theory  of  a  purchase  from  the  Indians.    To  this  remon- 
Doc.  rei.       strance  the  English  returned  a  ready  answer  denying  that 

Col.  Hist. 

n.  y.,i,  58.  the  Indians  were  "possessores  bonce  fiaei  of  those  coun- 
tries, so  as  to  be  able  to  dispose  of  them  either  by  sale  or 
donation,  their  residences  being  unsettled  and  uncertain, 
and  only  being  in  common."  They  answered  further,  "It 
can  not  be  proved  de  facto,  that  all  the  nations  of  said 
country  had  contracted  with  them  at  the  said  pretended 
sale."  The  English  title  was  in  the  same  instrument 
expressly  justified  further  "  by  first  discovery,  occupation 
and  the  possession  which  they  have  taken  thereof."  1  The 
precise  nature  of  the  rejoinder  by  the  Dutch  authorities  is 
not  now  known,  but  we  are  enabled  from  the  correspon- 
dence between  the  West  India  Company  and  the  States- 
General  to  ascertain  that  it  was  based  upon  the  inadequate 
nature  of  the  English  occupation  already  indicated,  and  the 
complete  nature  of  the  Dutch  settlements,  as  well  as  upon 
the  express  reservation  of  a  neutral  zone  between  the  38th 
and  41st  degrees  of  N.  latitude  contained  in  the  English 

1  This  part  of  the  English  answer  is  as  fol-  the  above  reasons,  the  true  and  legitimate 

lows:  "  But,  moreover,  the  right  his  Majes-  proprietors  thereof  in  those  parts,  where 

ty's  subjects  have  in  that  country,  is  justified  their  Lordships,  the  States,  had  not  of  them- 

by  first  discovery,  occupation  and  the  pos-  selves  and  did  not  assume,  such  pretension, 

session  which  they  have  taken  thereof,  and  and  had  not  granted  any  patent  thereof  to 

by  the  concessions  and  letters  patents  they  their  subjects,  to  give  them  any  power  or  title 

have  had  from  our  Sovereigns,  who  were,  for  thereunto."  (Doc.  rei. Col.  Hist. N.  Y.,I,  58.) 

xii 


BOUNDARIES  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND. 


charter  of  1606  to  the  London  Company.  The  Dutch 
continuing  to  press  for  the  release  of  the  vessel,  it  was 
finally  accorded,  "saving  and  without  any  prejudice  to 
his  Majesty's  rights."  Thus  the  correspondence  left  the 
matter  much  where  it  had  before  stood,  excepting  that  it 
carried  the  English  claim  down  to  the  year  1632,  and  yet 
necessarily  it  carried  the  Dutch  remonstrance  down  to  the 
same  period.  Meanwhile  the  Dutch  were  in  possession 
of  the  territory. 

The  boundaries  of  the  territory  claimed  by  the  Dutch 
were  never  precisely  defined — a  fact  which  naturally  led 
in  the  end  to  other  encroachments  upon  their  established 
jurisdiction.  The  octroi  of  16 14,  it  will  be  remembered, 
described  the  country  as  situated  "in  America  between 
New  France  and  Virginia,  whereof  the  sea-coasts  lie 
between  the  40th  and  45th  degrees  of  latitude,  as  can  be 
seen  by  a  figurative  map  hereunto  annexed."  The  condi- 
tion of  the  cartography  of  that  day,  as  well  as  the  inade- 
quate surveys  then  made,  render  incomplete  what  is  now 
assumed  to  be  the  chart  in  question.  In  the  correspon- 
dence relating  to  the  ship  "Eendracht,"  in  1632,  the  West 
India  Company  distinctly  claimed  the  sea-coast  from  the 
39th  to  the  41st  degrees  of  north  latitude  only,  or  that  land 
within  which  the  English  had  not,  up  to  that  time,  as  the 
Dutch  asserted,  undertaken  any  plantation,  and  which  was 
defined  as  a  neutral  zone  in  the  charter  granted  by  King 
James  I.  to  the  London  Company  in  the  year  1606.  The 
eastern  boundary  of  New  Netherland  was  always  indeter- 
minate, while  the  western  boundary  was  never  attempted; 
it  lay,  indeed,  in  terra  incognita.  The  southern  boundary 
of  New  Netherland  was  so  placed  as  to  include  the  mouth 
of  the  Delaware,  or  South,  River.  On  the  north  it  extended 
to  the  French  territory,  the  limits  of  which  were  long 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  I, 
Si,  52. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  I, 
559-575- 


See  Regents' 
Report 
on  the 
Boundaries 
of  the  State 
of  N.  Y., 
I,  7- 


Xlll 


DISPUTE  OVER  BOUNDARY. 


Jackson  v. 

Ingraham, 
4  Johnson's 
Reports, 
163. 


Trumbull's 
Colonial 
Records  of 
Connecticut. 


doubtful.  In  brief,  it  included  the  territories  of  the  States 
of  New- York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  and 
part  of  Maryland;  and,  in  addition,  the  country  drained  by 
the  Connecticut  River,  which  was  discovered  by  Adriaen 
Block  in  1614,  and  called  by  him  the  "Versch,"  or  "Fresh 
Water,"  River.  Thus,  as  is  usual  in  new  countries,  the 
rivers  furnished  the  natural  boundaries  of  the  primitive 
colonies. 

The  dispute  concerning  the  eastern  boundary  of  New 
Netherland  is  significant  because  it  enables  us  to  ascertain 
how  the  colonial  authorities  treated  it.  The  official  acts  of 
the  subordinates  of  government,  when  performed  on  the 
spot,  are  not  wholly  without  significance  in  the  law  of 
nations,  which  proceeds  from  moral  rather  than  from  tech- 
nical reasons.  The  Dutch,  in  the  year  1632,  supplemented 
their  title  by  discovery  by  a  purchase  of  the  title  of  the 
Pequods  to  the  Connecticut  country.  At  a  later  day  the 
English  authorities  procured  the  regularity  of  such  Indian 
grant  to  the  Dutch  to  be  impeached  by  other  Indians. 
Prior  to  this  grant,  the  English  had  attempted  to  patent 
the  same  territory,  and  the  Indian  title  was  probably  only 
a  counterstroke  of  the  Dutch  in  the  strife  for  possession 
evidently  about  to  ensue.  While  the  Dutch  at  first 
enjoyed  a  valuable  trade  on  the  Connecticut  River,  they 
never  established  there  those  signs  of  dominion  which 
were  evident  on  the  Hudson  and  the  Delaware  rivers. 
Consequently  after  1635  the  English  colonists  marched 
westward  from  Massachusetts,  crossed  the  Connecticut 
River,  and  little  by  little  encroached  on  the  Dutch  terri- 
tory, both  of  the  mainland  and  of  Long  Island.  In  1639 
the  English  colonists  maltreated  and  drove  off  the  Dutch 
garrison  on  the  Connecticut  River,  but  in  the  following 
year  the  authorities  of  New  Netherland  made  a  firm  stand 


XIV 


BOUNDARY  QUESTION. 


at  the  mouth  of  the  Norwalk  River,  where  they  erected  the 
standard  of  the  States-General,  thus  intending  to  preserve 
what  now  embraces  Westchester  County.  Step  by  step 
westward  the  encroachments  of  the  English  continued,  the 
Dutch  all  the  while  feebly  resisting  and  asserting  their  title 
paramount.  Finally,  at  Hartford,  Connecticut,  on  19  Sep- 
tember, 1650,  the  commissioners  of  the  united  English 
colonies  and  the  delegates  of  the  Director-General  of  New  Laws  and 
Netherland  delimited  the  eastern  frontier  of  New  Nether-  ofNew"** 
land  by  a  convention  which  seems  to  have  been  condition-    215, 455 ; 

Doc.  rcl. 

ally  approved  by  the  States-General.    By  the  terms  of  this   CoL  Hist. 

N.  Y.,  XIV, 

treaty,  the  eastern  boundary  of  New  Netherland  began  at  a  342. 
point  on  the  west  side  of  Greenwich  Bay  about  four  miles 
from  Stamford,  running  thence  northerly  for  twenty  miles. 
The  further  projection  of  the  eastern  line  was  reserved  for 
future  action ;  but  it  was  not  in  any  event  to  run  within  ten 
miles  of  the  Hudson  River.  Long  Island  was  bisected, 
and  only  that  part  lying  to  the  westward  of  a  line  run 
from  the  westernmost  part  of  Oyster  Bay  straight  to  the  sea 
was  retained  by  New  Netherland.  Thus  this  treaty  dimin- 
ished the  territory  originally  claimed  by  the  Dutch.  Only 
three  years  prior  to  this  event,  Director  Stuyvesant  had 
distinctly  claimed  for  his  government  all  the  land  lying  col. Hist.^ 
between  the  Connecticut  and  the  Delaware  rivers.  Un-  39- 
fortunately,  the  treaty  of  Hartford,  though  long  acquiesced 
in  by  the  English  government,  was  never  formally  ratified 
by  them.     Yet  it  was  virtually  ratified  in  1662,  and  the 

Doc.  rcl 

English  claim  to  New  Netherland  was  then  extinguished  coi/mst. 

.  .  N.  Y.,  II, 

by  the  law  of  nations,  even  if  we  disregard  the  recognition  325. 
accorded  by  Cromwell  in  the  treaty  of  1654. 

The  boundary  question  was  incidental  to  the  settlement 
of  a  new  country  by  different  European  powers.  The 
southern  boundary  of  New  Netherland  on  the  Delaware, 


XV 


NATURE  OF  SETTLEMENTS. 


or  South,  River,  also  troubled  the  Dutch  authorities.  The 
first  colony  appears  to  have  been  planted  there  by  the  Dutch 
feTcoi'  in  1623.  Later  on,  and  in  the  year  1633,  a  fort  is  said  to 
xiu  passim,  have  been  begun  by  them  at  the  mouth  of  the  river ;  but 
it  was  not  fully  completed  until  ten  years  later.  As  the 
border  English  were  opposed  to  the  Dutch  occupation, 
they  occasionally  made  irregular  sorties.  In  the  year 
1635,  the  fort,  being  then  vacant,  was  occupied  by  a  small 
party  of  English,  until  one  of  the  Dutch  West  India 
Company's  ships  was  sent  against  them.  The  vessel 
brought  the  marauders  to  Manhattan,  whence  they  were 
shipped  to  Virginia.  Thus  matters  stood  when  the  Royal 
Swedish  South  Company  planted  a  small  colony  on  the 
west  bank  of  Delaware  Bay,  which  was  for  a  time  known 
as  New  Sweden.  For  some  years  following  this  latter  in- 
cident, there  was  a  clash  of  authority  on  the  South  River 
—  English,  Swedes,  and  Dutch  participating;  but  in  1655 
the  Swedish  claims  were  forcibly  extinguished  by  an 
armed  expedition  on  the  part  of  the  Dutch,  and  the  Swedish 
residents  were  required  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to 
the  States-General.  The  West  India  Company  ceded  part 
of  the  region  in  1657  t0  tne  city  °f  °^  Amsterdam,  which 
planted  small  colonies  there.  Several  years  later,  Lord 
Baltimore,  under  his  English  grant,  laid  claim  to  the  South 
River  country;  the  Dutch,  however,  maintained  their  juris- 
diction over  it  until  all  their  rights  on  the  mainland  of 
North  America  were  finally  ceded  to  England  under  the 
articles  of  capitulation  and  the  subsequent  treaty  of  Breda 
— the  effect  of  which  on  the  laws  of  New- York  will  be 
hereafter  considered. 

Having  outlined  the  nature  of  the  Dutch  settlements  and 
the  extent  of  the  dominion  enjoyed  by  them  for  some  dec- 
ades, it  remains  to  consider  briefly  the  institutions  estab- 


XVI 


DUTCH  JURISPRUDENCE. 


lished  here  under  the  Dutch  sovereignty.  To  a  considerable 
extent  they  complement  and  explain  those  early  laws  of 
New-York  which  were  subsequently  enacted  by  the  Eng- 
lish authorities.  In  any  consideration  of  the  Dutch  in- 
stitutions, we  must  not  fail  to  remember  the  nature  of  the 
social  conditions  of  so  feeble  a  colony,  scattered  over  an 
area  of  country  now  containing  millions  of  people,  but  then 
barely  ten  thousand  in  all.  When  the  Dutch  reign  ended, 
in  1664,  the  New  Netherlanders  mainly  resided  in  two  sec- 
tions, the  one  adjacent  to  the  Hudson  River,  the  other  to 
the  Delaware.  The  city  of  New  Amsterdam,  on  Manhat- 
tan Island,  contained  in  all  but  fifteen  hundred  souls;  and  of 
the  residue  of  the  population  of  New  Netherland,  a  large 
majority  resided  at  no  great  distance  by  water  from  New 
Amsterdam.  The  simple  occupations  and  needs  of  such 
a  colony  as  was  New  Netherland  up  to  the  year  1664, 
required  only  the  most  rudimentary  administration  of  gov- 
ernment ;  and  yet  here,  as  in  all  the  colonies  of  a  cultivated 
and  civilized  state,  the  ultimate  norm,  or  standard  of  colonial 
jurisprudence  and  government,  was  that  of  the  land  from 
which  the  governing  authority  emanated.  Now,  when 
New  Netherland  was  under  Dutch  rule,  the  jurisprudence 
of  Holland  had  already  attained  to  the  highest  celebrity: 
Grotius,  Vinnius,  Van  Leeuwen,  Huber,  Donellus,  besides 
many  other  jurists,  had  made  the  names  of  the  universities 
of  Leyden  and  Utrecht  so  renowned,  that  Holland  was  then 
justly  regarded  as  the  one  true  fountain  of  the  civil  law. 
With  Grotius,  indeed,  began  the  theory  of  modern  govern- 
ment— a  government  founded  on  the  will  of  the  people. 
While  the  civil  law  formed  the  basis  of  the  jurispru- 
dence of  Holland,  at  least  after  the  founding  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Leyden  in  1575,  yet  it  was  in  course  of  time  so 
modified  by  the  ancient  feudal  laws,  statutes,  and  usages 

2  xvii 


ROOMSCH-HOLLANDSCHE  RECHT. 

of  Holland  as  to  acquire  a  name  of  its  own — "Roomsch- 
Hollandsche  Recht";  or,  the  Roman-Dutch  Law. 

While  the  Roman-Dutch  Law  supplied  the  common  law 
of  the  people  of  New  Netherland,  it  did  not  complete  the 
entire  system  of  law  in  force  here  under  the  Dutch — a  fact 
which  naturally  leads  to  a  brief  consideration  of  the  actual 
government  and  law  of  New  Netherland.  In  this  connec- 
tion it  will  be  recalled  that  in  the  year  1621  the  States- 
General  had  incorporated  the  Dutch  West  India  Company, 
in  order  that  the  remoter  trade  of  the  Atlantic  might  be 
carried  on  by  a  strong  organization  under  governmental 
supervision,  and  not  by  irresponsible  private  adventurers. 
To  the  company  were  delegated  extensive  powers  of  gov- 
ernment. It  could  make  contracts,  engagements,  and 
alliances  with  the  princes  and  natives  of  the  countries 
comprised  in  the  grant;  build  forts;  maintain  armies  and 
navies;  make  war  and  peace;  appoint  and  discharge  gov- 
ernors, officers  of  justice,  and  other  public  officials  neces- 
sary for  the  conservation  of  the  places,  and  for  the  keep- 
ing of  good  order,  police,  and  justice  there.  All  oaths 
of  allegiance  were,  however,  to  be  taken  to  the  States- 
General  as  well  as  to  the  company.  The  States-General 
reserved  the  approval  of  all  governors-in-chief,  and  of 
their  instructions,  as  well  as  the  right  to  commission  them. 
The  company  was  to  advance  the  peopling  of  the  new 
countries ;  but  this  object  was  manifestly  quite  subordi- 
nate to  the  main  chartered  privileges  of  privateering  and 
exploiting  the  Dutch  commerce.  The  governing  body  of 
the  company  consisted  of  an  assembly,  or  college,  of  nine- 
teen delegates  chosen  out  of  the  five  separate  chambers,  or 
branches,  of  the  company  established  for  convenience  in 
the  different  cities  of  the  United  Netherlands.  Of  these 
chambers,  that  at  Amsterdam  was  the  chief,  and  to  its 

xviii 


LAW  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND. 


management  the  affairs  of  New  Netherland  were  intrusted. 
The  West  India  Company  was  modeled  after  the  East 
India  Company.  Each  of  the  chambers  was  a  separate 
society,  with  members,  directors,  and  vessels  of  its  own. 
These  chambers  were  constituted  much  like  the  societes 
en  commandite.  Around  a  small  knot  of  responsible 
members  with  a  capital  of  from  4000  to  6000  florins  (^333 
to  ^"500),  there  was  a  large  number  of  anonymous  share- 
holders. From  time  to  time  the  company  received 
additional  powers  from  the  States-General.  The  superior 
administration  of  the  local  government  of  New  Nether- 
land was  vested  in  a  director  and  council,  who,  under  the 
restrictions  imposed  by  the  charter  and  its  amendments, 
and  the  instructions  and  the  ordinances  of  the  company, 
possessed  subordinate  judicial,  legislative,  and  executive 
powers.  The  exercise  of  the  judicial  power  was  subject  to 
an  appellate  jurisdiction  vested  in  the  Amsterdam  chamber 
of  the  company,  as  it  had  the  particular  charge  of  New 
Netherland.  The  general  supervision  of  the  government 
of  New  Netherland  was  lodged  in  the  board,  or  assembly, 
of  nineteen  delegates,  briefly  termed  the  "Assembly  of  the 
XIX.,"  and  already  mentioned. 

At  first  the  supreme  law  of  New  Netherland  was  the 
will  of  the  company,  as  expressed  in  instructions  to  the 
governors  and  declared  in  the  ordinances  of  the  company. 
Unfortunately,  these  ordinances,  with  the  other  archives 
of  the  Dutch  West  India  Company,  were  sold  for  waste 
paper  at  public  auction  in  the  year  1821,  by  the  order  of 
the  government  of  the  Netherlands.  Had  it  not  been  for 
such  sale,  this  commonwealth  would,  in  184 1 ,  have  obtained 
a  complete  copy  of  all  the  laws  of  New  Netherland,  some 
of  which  are  now  irrevocably  lost  Such  of  the  Dutch 
ordinances  as  were  transmitted  here,  and  as  have  been 


Asher's  In- 
troduction, 
Amsterdam, 
1854,  XVIII. 


General 
Introduction 
to  Doc.  rel- 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  I, 
XXV. 


xix 


WEST  INDIA  COMPANY. 


preserved  in  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of  State  of  New- 
York,  may  be  consulted  in  the  collection  compiled  and 
translated  by  Dr.  E.  B.  O'Callaghan.  But  this  collection 
is  far  from  complete,  many  of  the  Dutch  records  of  the 
provincial  epoch  having  been  carried  off  by  the  English 
and  lost  long  before  Dr.  O'Callaghan  became  the  State 
archivist.  Those  of  the  ordinances  which  remain,  though 
chiefly  relating  to  matters  of  police  and  the  mode  of 
justice,  possess  a  considerable  interest,  and  explain  to 
some  extent  anomalies  of  the  succeeding  laws  of  the 
province  under  the  English.  It  is  quite  apparent,  from 
the  general  tenor  of  the  known  ordinances,  that  the  statute 
law  thus  established  in  New  Netherland  by  the  company 
conformed  to  the  rationale  of  the  jurisprudence  of  Holland. 
In  the  absence  of  any  statutory  regulation,  the  Roman- 
Dutch  Law  furnished  the  rule  in  New  Netherland.  Even 
the  statutes  of  the  company  were  not  to  be  contrary  to, 
but  as  far  as  possible  in  conformity  with,  the  laws  of  the 
Fatherland.  This  was  a  natural  limitation  on  any  delega- 
tion of  the  powers  of  government  over  Dutch  subjects. 
The  words  of  the  charter  of  the  Dutch  West  India  Com- 
pany required  the  commission  of  the  governor-in-chief 
to  be  given  by  the  States-General,  and  his  instructions 
to  be  approved  by  them.  From  these  instruments  were 
derived  the  powers  of  colonial  government,  which  must, 
by  the  natural  limitations  on  the  powers  of  the  States- 
General  themselves,  have  been  conformed  to  the  law  of  the 
Fatherland.  That  the  jurisprudence  of  Holland  was  then 
a  very  enlightened  system,  any  one  may  perceive  from  the 
familiar  commentaries  of  Van  Leeuwen,  which  were  pub- 
lished in  the  Dutch  tongue  in  the  year  1678.  In  most 
Dutch  colonies,  these  commentaries,  together  with  the 
Introduction  of  Grotius  and  the  Institutes  of  Van  der 


JUDICIAL  ESTABLISHMENT. 


Linden,  still,  in  our  own  day,  comprise  the  great  body  of 
the  common  law.  So  by  contrasting  the  Dutch  system 
of  the  seventeenth  century  with  the  state  of  the  contem- 
porary English  common  law,  we  are  now  enabled  to  per- 
ceive the  enlightened  nature  of  the  first  jurisprudence 
established  here  by  Europeans.  The  favorable  impres- 
sion which  we  thus  gather  of  the  first  common  law  of 
these  parts,  will  be  corroborated  by  a  study  of  the  Dutch 
ordinances  and  documents.  By  their  provisions,  equal  doc.  rei. 
justice  was  to  be  administered  here  in  all  civil  and  crimi-  n^y1?1? 
nal  matters,  whether  of  strangers,  natives,  or  inhabitants.  123/405.' 
That  the  historic  liberality  of  the  Fatherland  toward 
strangers  was  continued  here  under  Dutch  rule,  we  have 
abundant  evidence  in  the  records;  for  even  when  the 
English  were  oppressively  encroaching  on  the  Dutch 
territory,  a  large  number  of  their  countrymen  actually 
lived  in  peace  and  safety  in  New  Netherland,  under  the 
protecting  authority  of  wise  and  equal  Dutch  laws. 

The  judicial  establishment  of  New  Netherland  was  such 
as  was  suited  to  the  exigencies  of  so  slender  a  population. 
At  first  the  only  court  appears  to  have  been  that  of  the 
Director-General  and  Council  on  Manhattan  Island,  but  at 
a  later  day  other  courts  were  established  elsewhere.  The 
court  of  the  Director  and  Council,  besides  having  a  general 
jurisdiction,  acted  as  a  Prerogative,  or  Surrogate's,  Court, 
and  also  as  a  Court  of  Admiralty.  It  no  doubt  proceeded 
according  to  the  commission  and  instructions  to  the 
Director-General.  Whether  appeals  from  the  judgments 
of  this  court  lay  to  the  States-General  is  in  doubt.  In  the 
year  1653,  the  States-General  resolved,  on  the  opinion  of 
the  Attorneys-General  of  Holland,  that  such  appeals  would 
not  lie  directly  to  the  States-General.  Yet,  at  an  earlier  ord.  of 
day,  in  the  case  of  Kuyter  and  Melyn,  who  had  been  treated  147. 

2*  xxi 


NEW  NETHERLAND  CONSTITUTION 


in  a  very  arbitrary  manner  by  Director  Stuyvesant,  the 
States-General  issued  a  mandamus  requiring  the  latter 

Doc  rel     and  his  associates  to  show  cause  at  The  Hague  why  the 

n?y judgment  of  the  Director's  Court  should  not  be  reversed. 

Jos! 35''    After  long  deliberation,  the  judgment  below  was  reversed. 

But  this  case  was  so  exceptional  and  extraordinary  that 

CoLHfat   even  the  Prince  of  Orange  interfered.    In  other  matters 

N.  Y.  I  .  . 

351.  '  '  we  find  the  superintending  authority  of  the  States-General 
exercised  with  sufficient  frequency  to  warrant  the  suppo- 
sition that  an  appellate  power  was  reserved  by  them  in 
proper  cases.  There  was,  however,  a  very  distinct  right 
to  review  the  judgments  of  the  Director  and  Council  of 
New  Netherland  vested  in  the  Amsterdam  chamber  of  the 
West  India  Company.  As  the  actions  of  the  latter  body 
were  always  subject  to  the  general  laws,  institutions,  and 
procedure  of  the  State  creating  the  company,  under  whose 
authority  alone  it  existed,  the  security  of  the  colonists  was 
not  neglected  by  the  States-General.  The  court  of  the 
Director-General  and  Council  of  New  Netherland,  at  a 
later  stage  of  its  existence,  exercised  an  appellate  juris- 
diction over  the  other  courts  established  in  the  different 
settlements,  and  for  this  purpose  was  convened  weekly  in 
Fort  Amsterdam.    As  the  general  or  local  business  of  this 

court  increased,  it  was  found  necessary  to  relieve  it  some- 
Laws  and 

ord.  of     what,  and  in  1647  a  Court  of  Arbitration  was  erected  for 

N.  Neth.,  ' 

75-  the  convenience  of  the  inhabitants  of  New  Amsterdam. 
The  latter  court  disappeared  with  the  incorporation  of 
New  Amsterdam  as  a  city  in  1653.  An  attentive  consid- 
eration of  the  structure  and  of  the  nature  of  the  court  of 
the  Director-General  and  Council  will  show  that  it  was 
such  a  court  as  is  usually  found  in  the  primitive  stages  of 
colonial  governments,  where  the  Governor  and  Council 
possess  not  only  judicial  but  executive  and  legislative 

xxii 


TOWN  COURTS  OF  THE  DUTCH. 


powers.  It  is  only  as  colonies  develop  that  these  powers 
pass  through  separate  channels. 

As  the  Dutch  peopled  their  territory,  town  courts  of 
first  instance  were  established  from  time  to  time.  It  is  a 
suggestive  fact  that  the  first  town  court  erected  by  the 
Dutch  was  one  for  the  benefit  of  the  English  residents 
of  Hempstead,  Long  Island,  a  place  then  within  New 
Netherland.  In  1644  Director  Kieft  granted  land  to 
Robert  Fordham,  John  Stickland,  and  other  persons  of 
English  origin,  then  in  allegiance  to  the  States-General, 
with  corporate  powers  including  the  right  to  nominate 
magistrates  for  the  governor's  selection,  and  to  establish 
laws  by  ordinances  with  the  consent  of  the  inhabitants. 
The  town  court  of  Hempstead  had  an  extensive  jurisdic- 
tion, civil  and  criminal,  but  the  right  of  appeal  to  the  court 
of  the  Director-General  at  New  Amsterdam  was  reserved. 
So  extraordinary  a  grant  of  self-government  at  this  early 
period  was  intended  to  placate  the  border  English,  who 
were  then  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Dutch,  and  in 
allegiance  to  the  States-General.  This  grant,  indeed, 
was  pursuant  to  a  Charter  of  Freedoms  and  Exemptions 
which  had  been  granted  in  1641  to  the  English  residents 
of  New  Netherland.  By  the  latter  charter,  the  many 
English  resident  in  New  Netherland  might  have  their 
own  magistracy  and  other  privileges,  provided  they  took 
the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Noble  Lords,  States-General, 
and  the  West  India  Company.  Other  town  courts  were 
erected  subsequently  for  the  convenience  of  the  other 
settlements  of  New  Netherland ;  that  of  Gravesend  was 
erected  in  1645,  and  that  of  Breuckelen  in  1646.  Flushing 
had  such  a  court  in  1648.  In  1652,  Beverswyck  (Albany) 
was  severed  from  the  colony  of  Rensselaerswyck,  and  a 
separate  court  was  erected  at  Fort  Orange,  with  juris- 


See 

Chancellor 
Kent's 
opinion, 
Denton  v. 
Jackson, 
2  Johnson's 
N.  Y. 
Chancery 
Reports, 324. 

Laws  and 

Ord.  of 

N.  Neth.,42. 


Laws  and 

Ord.  of 

N.  Neth.,27. 


Laws  and 
Ord.  of 
N.  Neth., 
53,  5»- 


xxni 


EXECUTIVE  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND. 


Laws  and 
Ord.  of 
N.Neth.,X. 


Record  of 
Burgo- 
masters and 
Schepens 
of  New 
Amsterdam, 
in  Van 
Tienhoven, 
Schout,  v. 
Willem 
Albertsen, 
I.  238, 
18  Aug., 
1653. 


diction  over  the  first-named  settlement.  This  was  the 
only  court  on  the  Hudson  River,  north  of  Manhattan 
Island,  before  1661.  In  the  same  year  (1652),  a  bench  of 
justice  was  granted  to  Middleburgh  (now  Newtown,  Long 
Island),  and  in  1654  the  towns  of  Amersfoordt  (Flat- 
lands)  and  Midwout  (Flatbush)  were  allowed  a  joint  court, 
which  sat  at  the  latter  place  three  quarters,  and  in  the 
former  town  one  quarter,  of  the  year,  until  March,  1661, 
when  each  town  obtained  a  separate  bench.  In  March, 
1656,  Westchester  and  Jamaica,  then  called  Rustdorp, 
were  each  permitted  to  elect  magistrates  "on  the  same 
footing  and  with  the  same  privileges  as  Middleburgh, 
Breuckelen,  Midwout,  and  Amesfoort."  A  town  court 
was  granted  to  Haerlem  in  1660;  to  Bushwyck,  Wiltwyck 
(now  Kingston),  Bergen,  and  New  Utrecht,  in  1661;  and 
to  Staten  Island  in  1664.  Most  of  the  burgher  courts 
were  organized  upon  a  simpler  basis  than  that  of  New 
Amsterdam, —  not  possessing  burgomasters,  but  only  a 
schout  and  two  or  more  schepens,  or,  in  some  cases,  com- 
missioners. These  officers  were  at  first  appointed  by  the 
Director  and  Council  for  a  term  of  one  year,  but  after  some 
time  the  outgoing  officials  were  permitted  to  name  a  double 
number  of  candidates,  from  whom  their  successors  were 
selected.  The  administration  of  the  village  courts  was  to 
conform  to  the  customs  of  the  city  of  Amsterdam  as  nearly 
as  the  circumstances  of  this  country  would  permit. 

The  chief  executive  power  over  New  Netherland  was 
never  vested  in  persons  of  either  exalted  station  or  of  the 
highest  order  of  ability — the  colony  was  too  distant,  the 
remuneration  too  scanty,  and  the  life  too  exacting,  to  at- 
tract such  persons.  In  the  year  1626,  Peter  Minuit  was 
commissioned  Director-General  of  New  Netherland.  To 
assist  him  was  appointed  a  council  of  five  persons,  who 


XXIV 


WILLIAM  KIEFT,  DIRECTOR-GENERAL. 


with  the  Director  were  invested  with  all  local,  legislative, 
judicial,  and  executive  powers,  subject  to  the  supervision 
and  appellate  jurisdiction  of  the  Amsterdam  chamber  of 
the  company.  The  sentences  of  the  court  were  enforced 
by  an  officer  called  the  schout-fiscal,  who  also  acted  as 
the  public  prosecutor,  combining  the  duties  of  sheriff, 
attorney-general,  and  collector  of  the  port.  In  Holland 
these  duties  were  divided  between  the  schout,  or  sheriff, 
and  the  fiscal,  or  attorney-general;  but  in  New  Amster- 
dam  the  schout-fiscal  did  the  duty  of  both  court  officers,   col.  Hist. 

N  Y  XP 

The  official  records  of  the  colony,  during  the  administra-  262, 388. 
tion  of  Minuit  and  his  successor,  van  Twiller,  are  lost,  so 
that  little  is  known  about  their  mode  of  administering 
justice.  In  1638,  William  Kieft  arrived  with  a  commis- 
sion as  Director-General,  and  from  the  time  of  his  arrival 
the  records  are  unbroken.  He  was  intrusted  with  great 
power,  and  used  it  shamefully.  His  instruction  required 
that  he  should  have  a  council.  He  appointed  one  member 
to  sit  with  him  in  the  board,  and  gave  him  one  vote, 
reserving  two  for  himself.  Under  Kieft,  the  Director- 
General  and  Council  composed  the  only  judicial  tribunal, 
and  exercised  both  civil  and  criminal  jurisdiction.  By  his 
instructions  an  appeal  was  to  be  permitted  from  their 
judgments  to  the  home  government,  but  by  a  judicious 
system  of  fines  and  imprisonment,  he  put  an  end  to  this 
annoying  practice.  Kieft  continued  as  Director-General 
of  New  Netherland  for  about  eight  years,  and  in  that  time 
nearly  reduced  the  prosperous  colony  to  ruin.  Finally, 
upon  a  petition  of  the  inhabitants,  showing  the  evils  aris- 
ing from  his  misgovernment,  the  company  issued  orders 
for  his  recall,  and  appointed  Peter  Stuyvesant  to  take  his 
place.  Associated  with  Stuyvesant  were  a  vice-director 
and   a  schout-fiscal,    who,   with   the  Director-General, 

XXV 


PETER  STUYVESANT,  DIRECTOR-GENERAL. 

composed  the  Council.  Upon  this  council  were  conferred 
full  judicial  powers,  but  with  the  qualification  that  when 
the  schout-fiscal  should  prosecute  for  the  government, 
either  in  criminal  or  civil  cases,  the  military  commandant 
should  take  his  place  upon  the  bench,  and  that  in  criminal 
prosecutions  there  should  be  added  to  the  court  two 
capable  persons  from  the  commonalty  of  the  district  in 
CoLHist   which  the  crime  was  committed.    The  administration  of 

N.  Y.  I 

tix. '  '  Stuyvesant,  which  was  the  last  under  Dutch  rule,  contin- 
ued for  seventeen  years,  During  almost  the  entire  period, 
a  struggle  was  carried  on  in  the  colony  between  the 
power  of  the  company,  represented  by  the  Director,  and  the 
people,  insisting  upon  their  inherent  right  of  self-govern- 
ment. Shortly  after  Stuyvesant's  arrival,  he  seems  to 
have  organized  a  distinct  court  of  justice  for  the  colony, 
by  the  appointment  of  the  Vice-Director  as  presiding 
judge.  This  tribunal,  which  was  simply  an  organized 
court  of  the  Director  and  Council,  had  power  to  decide  all 
cases,  civil  and  criminal;  but  the  Director  required  that  his 
opinion  should  be  asked  in  important  matters,  and  re- 
served the  right  to  preside  in  person  whenever  he  saw  fit. 
Directly  after  the  organization  of  the  court,  the  case  of 
Kuyter  and  Melyn,  before  noticed,  came  before  it,  and  had 
a  very  important  effect  upon  the  future  of  the  colony. 
These  men,  who  had  been  prominent  in  obtaining  the 
recall  of  Director  Kieft,  were  prosecuted  by  order  of  the 
new  Director  for  seditious  libel  in  drawing  the  petition  for 
Kieft's  removal,  and  for  disrespectful  conduct  toward  the 
ex-Director.  Their  case  coming  on  for  trial,  Stuyvesant 
was  in  favor  of  sentencing  one  to  death,  and  of  imposing 
a  heavy  fine  upon  the  other.  They  were,  however,  fined 
and  banished.  Going  to  Holland,  they  appealed  to  the 
States-General,  although  the  Director  had  told  them,  in 

xxvi 


CITY  OF  NEW  AMSTERDAM. 


the  bombastic  and  figurative  language  of  the  time,  that  he 
would  have  them  hanged  on  the  highest  tree  in  New 
Netherland  if  he  supposed  that  they  would  be  guilty  of  rI^n.y. 
such  contempt  of  his  authority.  The  States-General,  who  coifecdo?,' 
always  seemed  disposed  to  protect  the  colonists,  reversed  ni,5^?' 
the  sentence,  and  dealt  the  first  blow  at  the  arbitrary  power 
of  the  Director.  The  Director-General  and  Council  had, 
prior  to  the  incorporation  of  New  Amsterdam,  also  admin- 
istered the  municipal  affairs  in  Manhattan,  which  belonged 
in  fee  to  the  West  India  Company.  This  they  did  in  a 
spirited  but  irregular  fashion.  It  could  hardly  be  ex- 
pected that  a  mercantile  monopoly  could  prove  a  safe 
repository  of  governmental  powers.  That  the  admin- 
istration was,  under  the  circumstances,  so  orderly  and 
beneficent,  reflects  great  credit  on  the  jurisprudence  and 
institutions  of  the  Fatherland. 

As  the  population  of  New  Netherland  increased,  it  was 
found  necessary  to  establish  a  municipal  government  for 
the  Dutch  on  Manhattan  Island,  the  seat  of  the  executive 
residence  and  the  chief  entrepot  of  the  entire  region  round 
about.  By  1652,  when  the  population  had  increased  to 
some  eight  hundred  or  more,  the  village  of  New  Am- 
sterdam, at  the  southern  extremity  of  the  island,  desired 
a  municipal  government,  in  conformity  with  the  institu- 
tions of  Holland,  where  burgher  rights  and  privileges 
were  much  esteemed  and  played  an  important  role  in 
the  general  polity  of  the  country.  The  West  India  Com- 
pany at  first  opposed  the  grant  of  these  privileges  as 
inconsistent  with  their  own  prerogative.  But  the  colo- 
nists being  pertinacious,  the  company  finally  instructed 
Stuyvesant  in  1653  to  permit  the  establishment  on  Man- 
hattan Island  of  a  burgher  government  after  the  model 
of  the  free  cities  of  Holland.    "Stuyvesant  accordingly 

xxvii 


BURGHER-RECHT. 

issued  a  proclamation  on  the  feast  of  Candlemas,  ap- 
pointing Arendt  van  Hattem  and  Martin  Kregier,  burgo- 
masters, and  Paulus  Leendertsen  van  der  Grist,  Maxi- 
milian van  Gheel,  Allard  Anthony,  Willem  Beeckman, 
and  Pieter  Wolfertsen  van  Couwenhoven,  schepens,  of  the 
city  of  New  Amsterdam.  Cornelis  van  Tienhoven,  the 
company's  fiscal,  was  made  schout  of  the  city,  and  Jacob 
Kip  was  appointed  secretary  to  the  municipal  government. 
A  few  days  afterward,  the  burgomasters  and  schepens 
met  together,  and  gave  notice  that  they  would  hold  their 
ordinary  meetings  every  Monday  morning  at  nine  o'clock, 
'  in  the  building  hitherto  called  the  City  Tavern,  and  now 
named  the  Stadt  Huys  or  City  Hall.'  Stuyvesant,  whose 
attention  had  been  so  much  given  to  the  municipal  affairs 
of  the  capital,  often  attended  these  meetings  in  person. 
Record-books  were  then  commenced,  and  a  solemn  form 
Broadhead's  of  prayer  was  adopted,  with  which  the  proceedings  of  the 
Sestateof    court  were  to  be  opened.   The  island  of  Manhattan  had  at 

New-York 

1,548.  last  formally  become  the  city  of  New  Amsterdam."  The 
municipality  of  New  Amsterdam,  as  established  in  1653, 
resembled  that  of  its  more  ancient  namesake  in  Holland, 
being  vested  in  burgomasters  and  schepens  who,  with  the 
schout-nscal,  composed  the  court  of  magistrates  as  well 
as  the  executive  government  of  the  city.  The  burgo- 
masters acted  as  orphan-masters,  or  surrogates,  until  1655. 
In  the  year  1657  the  citizens  of  New  Amsterdam  were,  at 
their  own  request,  allowed  the  Dutch  municipal  and  trad- 
ing privileges  of  "burgher-recht,"  and  they  were  divided, 
according  to  quality,  into  great  and  small  burghers;  the 
latter  class  might  purchase  the  higher  honor  for  a  trifling 
sum.  After  a  custom  of  the  Fatherland,  the  great  burghers 
enjoyed  the  monopoly  of  certain  municipal  offices,  as  well 
as  exemptions  from  many  onerous  civic  duties.  Com- 
bined, the  rights  of  the  burghers  constituted  the  freedom 


xxviii 


SCHOUT  AND  SCHEPENS. 


of  the  city.  Much  sentiment  has  been  written  deprecating 
the  introduction  of  this  invidious  and  aristocratic  distinc- 
tion. In  sober  point  of  fact,  it  was  a  mere  matter  of 
police,  and  of  no  great  political  or  social  consequence.  It 
was  most  anxiously  sought  by  the  inhabitants  themselves, 
in  order  that  they  might  be  better  protected  against 
foreign  competition  in  trade.1    Burgher-right  confined  the   Ord.  of 

.....  .  .  N.  Neth 

trading  privileges  to  such  as  were  citizens  of  New  Am-  301. 
sterdam.  The  citizens  of  New  Amsterdam  were  finally 
allowed  to  elect  a  schout  (or  sheriff),  two  burgomasters, 
and  five  schepens.  These  officers  were  to  form  a  munici- 
pal court  of  justice,  subject  to  the  right  of  appeal  to  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  province.  However,  Stuyvesant 
departed  from  his  somewhat  ambiguous  instructions,  and, 
instead  of  permitting  the  people  to  elect  their  officers, 
appointed  them  himself.  A  few  days  thereafter,  on  5 
February,  1653,  the  newly  appointed  burgomasters  and 
schepens  came  together  and  organized  their  court.  This 
tribunal,  known  as  the  Court  of  Burgomasters  and  Sche- 
pens, continued  during  the  remainder  of  the  Dutch  rule. 
Its  name  under  the  English  was  changed  to  that  of  the 
Mayor's  Court,  and  at  a  later  day  to  the  Court  of  Common 
Pleas  of  the  City  and  County  of  New-York,  which,  as  it 
now  exists,  is  the  lineal  descendant  of  the  old  Dutch  court. 
The  Court  of  Burgomasters  and  Schepens  had  at  first 
original  jurisdiction  of  all  civil  cases  which  arose  in  the 
city  of  New  Amsterdam,  and  a  few  years  afterward  full 
criminal  jurisdiction,  except  in  cases  of  murder.  It  acted 
also  as  a  Court  of  Admiralty  and  as  a  Probate  Court.2 


1See  "Burghers  and  Freemen  of  New 
Amsterdam  and  New- York "  (Collections 
of  N.  Y.  Hist.  Society,  XVIII),  for  a  full 
account  of  both  burgher-rights. 

2  For  a  full  and  interesting  account  of  the 
procedure  and  history  of  the  ancient  munici- 


pal court  of  New- York  city,  see  the  History 
of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  for  the  City 
and  County  of  New- York,  by  Judge  Charles 
P.  Daly;  Preface  to  E.  D.  Smith's  N.  Y. 
Common  Pleas  Reports,  I. 


xxix 


LAND  LAW  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  I,  58. 

Grotius, 
Introduction 
to  Dutch 
Jurispru- 
dence, 
passim. 

See  Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  I,  37, 
56,  84,  and 
Vols.  XIII, 
XIV  of  the 
same  series, 
passim; 
Duke  of 
York's  Book 
of  Laws, 
Harrisburg, 
Penn., 
edition  of 
1878,  p.  418; 
"Charter  of 
Freedoms 
and  Exemp- 
tions," sec. 
xxvi ;  Doc. 
rel.  Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  II, 
557;  Laws 
and  Ord.  of 
N.  Neth.,  9. 

Droit  des 
Gens,  L.  II, 
86. 


Other  municipal  governments  were  from  time  to  time 
granted  by  the  Directors  to  the  other  settlements  of  New 
Netherland. 

Any  outline  of  the  institutions  established  here  by  the 
Dutch  would  be  incomplete  without  a  reference  to  the  land 
law  of  the  colony.  The  theory  announced  by  the  English 
in  1632,  that  the  Indians  were  not  "flossessores  bonce  fidei" 
of  the  lands  of  America  so  as  to  be  able  to  dispose  of  them 
either  by  sale  or  donation,  was  not  consistent  with  the  more 
enlightened  character  of  the  Dutch  jurisprudence.  Con- 
sequently the  Dutch  always  proceeded  upon  the  theory 
that  their  title  to  New  Netherland  was  wholly  derivative. 
In  every  instance  both  the  West  India  Company  and  the 
other  Dutch  subjects  of  New  Netherland  purchased  from 
the  Indian  inhabitants  the  lands  wanted  by  the  Dutch  for 
occupation.  The  archives  of  New-York  are  full  of  trans- 
actions of  this  character.  Thus  the  island  of  Manhattan 
was  purchased  from  the  Indians  for  sixty  guilders  (about 
twenty-four  dollars),  and  thus  Kiliaen  van  Rensselaer's 
agent,  Krol,  purchased  the  vast  region  adjacent  to  Fort 
Orange,  on  the  upper  Hudson.  In  this  way,  the  celebrated 
question  of  the  publicist  Vattel, —  "Whether  a  nation  may 
lawfully  take  possession  of  some  part  of  a  vast  country  in 
which  there  are  none  but  erratic  nations,  whose  scanty 
population  is  incapable  of  occupying  the  whole?" — was 
so  answered  by  the  Dutch  as  to  avoid  all  moral  diffi- 
culties. About  1629,  in  order  to  fulfil  the  clause  of  their 
charter  requiring  them  to  advance  the  peopling  of  un- 
settled parts,  the  Dutch  West  India  Company,  with  the 
assent  of  the  States-General,  determined  to  encourage  in 
New  Netherland  private  colonies,  the  masters,  or  patroons, 
of  which  were  to  be  vested  with  seigniorial  government 
within  their  respective  colonies.    It  was  thought  that  these 


XXX 


DUTCH  PATROONS. 


seigniorial  privileges  would  attract  the  capital  as  well  as  the 
personal  interest  of  the  more  ambitious  mercantile  mem- 
bers of  the  company ;  for  seigniorial  estates  in  Holland 
were  highly  esteemed  and  very  ancient.  In  furtherance  of 
this  motive,  the  Charter  of  Freedoms  and  Exemptions  was 
promulgated,  whereby  any  member  of  the  company,1  who 
should,  within  four  years  after  notice  to  the  company, 
undertake  to  plant  "a  colonie  "  of  fifty  persons  upward  of 
fifteen  years  old,  out  of  the  limits  of  the  island  of  Man- 
hattan,— which  was  reserved  to  the  company, — should, 
within  his  colony,  possess  certain  powers  and  privileges 
prescribed  in  the  charter  and  familiar  to  the  seigniories  of 
Holland.  In  addition,  they  were  to  have  certain  trading  Laws  and 
privileges,  then  far  more  valuable;  but  the  fur  trade  was  N^Nefh-.G; 
excepted  until  after  the  year  1639.    By  a  liberal  amend-  coi/mst. 

N  Y  I 

ment  to  the  charter  of  1629,  adopted  in  the  year  1640,  150.  ' 
whoever  conveyed  five  persons  above  fifteen  years  of  age 
was  to  be  acknowledged  "  Master,"  or  "  Colonist,"  and 
have  one  hundred  morgens  of  land  (Rhineland  measure) 
wherever  he  pleased  to  select.  Under  the  Charter  of 
Freedoms  and  Exemptions,  seven  colonies,  or  patroon- 
ships,  were  founded  in  New  Netherland.  The  Charter  of 
Freedoms  and  Exemptions  did  not,  however,  forbid  the 
occupation  of  land  by  individuals,  who  might  continue  to 
preempt  as  much  as  they  could  improve,  but  subject  to  the 
approbation  of  the  Director-General  and  Council  of  New 
Netherland. 

With  but  two  exceptions,  and  these  by  the  accident  of 
superior  situation,  the  patroons  were  unsuccessful  in  found- 
ing in  New  Netherland  estates  of  any  permanence.  They 

1  Laws  and  Ordinances  of  New  Nether-      lands  to  plant  such  colonies.    (Doc.  rel. 
land.    This  provision  was  amended  in  1640       Col.  Hist.  N.  Y.,  I,  119.) 
so  as  to  allow  any  inhabitant  of  the  Nether- 

xxxi 


RENSSELAERSWYCK. 


were  at  war  with  the  spirit  of  individualism  characteristic 
of  new  countries,  and  in  1659  the  company  decided  to 
cS'His't.    tolerate  no  more  such  ventures.    Of  all  the  "colonies" 

N  Y 

xin,i2i.  thus  attempted  by  private  persons,  that  of  van  Rensse- 
laer, in  the  valley  of  the  upper  Hudson,  and  that  of  van 
der  Donck,  at  Yonkers,  alone  survived  the  English  con- 
quest of  1664.  The  others  perished  long  before  Rens- 
selaerswyck  was  converted  into  an  English  manor  of  im- 
portance in  any  consideration  of  the  colonial  land  tenures 
of  New-York.  Rensselaerswyck  was  the  result  of  a  part- 
nership venture,  but  the  shares  of  the  other  associates  ulti- 
mately devolved  on  the  members  of  the  van  Rensselaer 
family  who  established  themselves  in  the  new  country. 
The  later  history  of  this  manor  is  one  of  decadence  and 
of  prolonged  strife  with  the  inconsistent  institutions  of  the 
new  country.  Prior  to  the  English  conquest  of  1664,  the 
"Colonie  of  Rensselaerswyck"  was  already  a  flourishing 
settlement.  The  estate  and  privileges  conferred  on  the 
patroons  were  not  of  the  ancient  feudal  type,  but  resembled 
those  in  Holland,  then  called  "good  feuds,"  or  seigniories 
which  had  been  so  modernized  as  to  prevent  harsh  inci- 
dents, escheats,  and  reversions  to  the  lord  of  the  manor. 
The  Charter  of  Freedoms  and  Exemptions  simply  con- 
ferred upon  the  patroons  the  powers  then  incidental  to 
a  common  Dutch  sub-fief,  without  any  title  of  nobility 
attached.  In  their  "colonies,"  the  patroons,  as  seigniors, 
exercised  subordinate  legal  jurisdiction.  In  person,  or  by 
deputy,  in  the  Courts  Baron,  they  pronounced  judgments 
for  civil  injuries  or  crimes;  but  by  law  their  judgments 
in  cases  involving  at  one  time  fifty,  and  afterward  one 
hundred,  guilders,  or  inflicting  infamy,  were  subject  to 
the  review  of  the  Director-General  and  Council  at  Fort 
Amsterdam,  the  executive  residence. 

xxxii 


DUTCH  SUB-FIEFS. 


While  there  is  some  evidence  that  the  patroons  desired 
to  augment  their  jurisdiction  over  their  own  colonies,  jure 
majestatis,  as  successors  to  the  Indian  chieftains  whose 
powers  they  claimed  to  have  acquired  by  purchase,  the  coLtKst 
seigniorial  system  of  the  Dutch  was  at  that  time  an  ex-  84,86. 
tremely  moderate  system,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  sup- 
pose that  it  was  oppressive  when  transplanted  to  this 
country.    The  Charter  of  Freedoms  and  Exemptions  dis- 
tinctly granted  to  those  patroons  who  desired  it  venia 
testandi,  or  the  power  of  disposing  of  their  fiefs  by  will. 
The  lands  within  the  colonies  of  the  patroons  were  de- 
clared allodial,  although  certain  duties  of  service  were 
usually  reserved  in  leases.    Soon  after  the  colonies  of  the 
patroons  had  been  founded,  disputes  arose  under  the  sei- 
gniorial law  of  Holland  concerning  the  character  of  the 
fiefs  of  the  patroons,  in  the  course  of  which  it  is  apparent    c°l  Skt. 
that  the  latter  did  not  desire  to  recognize  the  West  India    84,8o';e.  f. 
Company  as  their  lord  paramount.    For  this  reason  the    "  Origin  and 
very  interesting  claim  was  made  that  the  patroons  had    Manors  m 
succeeded  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  "Indian  lords"  who  52.* 
had  made  the  original  grants  to  the  patroons.    The  West 
India  Company  held  the  entire  province1  as  a  fief,  and 
asserted  its  claim  to  be  considered  the  superior  lord  of 
the  whole  of  New  Netherland,  including  Rensselaerswyck, 
although  at   first   the  patroon   of  Rensselaerswyck  at-    Doc.  rel. 
tempted  to  defeat  the  appellate  jurisdiction  of  the  High    n.  y.,i,' 

•  1  423-  523~4> 

Court  at  New  Amsterdam,  but  without  success.    Within    xiv,  id., 
Rensselaerswyck,  farms  seem  usually  to  have  been  let  387' 
to  the  Dutch  colonists,  reserving  to  the  patroon  one  tenth 
of  the  farm  produce  as  rent;  other  conditions  proper  to 
the  new  settlement  were  prescribed.    The  sub-fiefs  of  the 

lit  was  called  a  province  because  the  company  was  invested  with  the  arms  of  a  count. 
(Doc.  rel.  Col.  Hist.  N.  Y.,  I,  262.) 

t,  xxxiii 


JUS  PATRONATUS. 


patroons  of  New  Netherland  were  "  devolvable  by  death 
as  well  to  females  as  to  males."  The  main  and  essential 
difference  between  the  lands  of  New  Netherland,  without 
and  within  the  colonies  of  the  patroons,  related  to  the  ju- 
risdiction of  the  patroon's  court.  This  court  had  subor- 
dinate jurisdiction  over  the  colonists  living  on  the  lands 
of  the  patroon,  just  as  other  manor  courts,  in  countries 
where  the  manorial  system  survived.  But  while  Rens- 
selaerswyck  was  still  in  embryo,  it  ceased  to  be  a  Dutch 
feud,  and  became  an  English  manor  by  virtue  of  a  grant 
from  the  new  lord  proprietor.  The  feudal  tenures  of 
both  the  mother-countries — Holland  and  England  —  hav- 
ing been  reformed  before  the  foundation  of  manors  in 
New-York,  the  manorial  system  introduced  by  the  Dutch 
was  not  a  harsh  one,  while  it  operated  as  an  induce- 
ment to  persons  of  capital  to  colonize  a  distant  and  wild 
country.  The  pretensions  of  the  patroons  were  kept 
within  strict  bounds  by  the  West  India  Company,  and 
the  colonists  within  the  patroonships  were,  by  the  law, 
regarded  as  free  inhabitants  of  New  Netherland.  Al- 
though the  lands  within  the  patroons'  domains  were 
declared  allodial,  the  jurisdiction  of  a  perpetual  hereditary 
fief  remained  in  the  patroons.  This  title  "  patroon  "  was 
not  one  of  nobility.  It  was  derived  from  the  civil  law, 
where  the  original  patronus  simply  indicated  a  patrician. 
The  jus  patronatus  of  the  Roman  law  was  taken  by  the 
Dutch  as  a  convenient  guide  for  their  own  system, 
in  which  the  patroon  corresponded  with  the  French  sei- 
gnieur  or  the  English  lord  of  the  manor.  As  the  Dutch 
patroons  enjoyed  certain  jurisdiction,  "high,  low,  or  mid- 
dle," and  might  preserve  the  peace  within  their  manors,  it 
was  evidently  thought  that  the  transfer  of  this  system 
to  America,  and  the  erection  into  patroonships  of  those 

xxxiv 


LAND  TENURES. 


independent  colonies  which  were  distant  from  the  actual 
settlements  of  the  West  India  Company,  might  afford 
a  convenient  system  for  policing  and  colonizing  New 
Netherland.  The  error  was  soon  detected,  and  the  erec- 
tion of  patroonships  was  finally  discontinued  by  the  West 
India  Company. 

The  other  settled  parts  of  New  Netherland,  outside  of 
the  patroonships,  were  primarily  vested  in  the  company, 
having  been  acquired  by  it  either  by  grants  from  the  In- 
dians or  as  derelicts.  By  the  company  portions  of  these 
lands  were  granted  to  the  colonists,  sometimes  in  the  name 
of  the  States-General,  the  Prince  of  Orange,  and  the  man- 
agers of  the  West  India  Company,  and  at  others  in  that 
of  the  local  director  of  the  West  India  Company,  but 
on  condition  that  the  grantees  acknowledge  the  com- 
pany as  patroon.  The  common  Dutch  deed,  sometimes 
called  a  transport,  which  followed  the  ground  brief,  was  the 
usual  form  of  conveyance  employed  in  New  Netherland. 
Unfortunately  the  technical  writers  on  the  jurisprudence 
of  New-York  do  not  treat  the  early  land  law  with  as 
much  precision  as  it  has  been  treated  in  the  other 
Anglo-Dutch  colonies  acquired  by  England  through  the 
means  of  cessions  or  treaties.  And  yet  this  matter  at  the 
present  day  in  New- York  is  one  not  only  of  great  in- 
terest, but  in  many  cases  originally  held  under  Dutch 
ground  briefs  and  transports,  it  is  of  considerable  practical 
importance  to  the  successors  in  title.  The  nature  of  the 
Dutch  West  India  Company's  estate  appears  to  have  been 
treated  by  the  Dutch  jurists  as  a  seigniorial  feud,  or  a  fief  of 
nobility,  but  one  depending  altogether  on  the  charter  of  the 
latter  company  from  the  States-General.  This  theory  was 
consistent  not  only  with  the  grant  to  the  company  of  the 
arms  of  a  count,  but  also  with  the  grant  of  jurisdiction,  "cum 


Hoffman's 
Estate,  etc.,  of 
the  Corpora- 
tion of  New- 
York,  I.  98 ; 
Dunham  v. 
Williams, 
37,  N.  Y. 
Reports, 
251;  Bartow 
v.  Draper, 
5  Duer, 
N.  Y. 
Superior 
Court 
Reports, 
130,  142; 
Stoiy  v. 
N.  Y.  Ele- 
vated R.  R. 
Co.,  3  Abb, 
N.  C,  489; 
Van  Giesen, 
v.  Bridgford, 
18  Hun  73. 


XXXV 


DUTCH  TRANSPORTS. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  XIV, 
10. 


Laws  and 
Ord.  of 
N.  Neth., 
114. 


Hoffman's 
Estate,  etc., 
of  the  Cor- 
poration of 
New- York, 
I,98,99>329- 


annexa  jurisdictione"  and  the  oath  of  allegiance  required 
by  the  company  to  itself.  In  accordance  with  this  theory 
the  company  might,  by  the  contemporary  law  of  Holland, 
alienate  its  property,  but  not  in  seigniorial  tenure.  The 
grants  to  the  patroons,  it  will  be  recalled,  had  been  spe- 
cially authorized  by  the  Charter  of  Freedoms  and  Ex- 
emptions, which  primarily  regulated  the  land  tenures  of 
the  Dutch  and  exempted  the  colonists  for  ten  years  from 
the  date  of  settlement  from  all  taxes  or  other  contributions 
to  the  government.  Thereafter  the  colonists  were  obliged 
to  pay  to  the  company  one  tenth  of  all  the  yearly  produce 
of  the  land  and  a  couple  of  capons  for  a  house  and  garden. 
Under  this  charter,  which  operated  as  a  general  authority 
from  the  States-General,  the  grantees  of  the  company  pos- 
sessed their  holdings  in  "full  property,"  and  therefore  might 
dispose  of  the  same  to  whomsoever  they  pleased,  without 
the  necessity  of  applying  to  the  company,  as  superior  lord, 
and  either  by  way  of  absolute  conveyance,  by  lease,  or 
emphyteusis,  or  by  hypothec,  or  mortgage.  The  company, 
however,  seems  to  have  regulated  the  execution  to  some 
extent  of  such  deeds.  All  types  of  the  instruments  men- 
tioned, then  familiar  to  the  lawyers  of  Holland,  are  to 
be  found  among  the  land  documents  of  the  Dutch  period, 
and  in  a  form  quite  in  accordance  with  the  principles  of  the 
reformed  feudal  law.  Although  the  Dutch  took  up  small 
portions  only  of  the  country,  in  several  parts,  notably  in 
the  old  city  of  New- York,  much  of  the  land  was  originally 
conveyed  by  means  of  Dutch  ground  briefs  and  trans- 
ports, and  the  legal  qualities  of  the  estates  under  them 
have  necessarily  attracted  the  attention  of  law-writers,  but 
whether  in  a  manner  quite  consistent  with  the  subsequent 
laws  enacted  by  the  English  authorities  should  be  con- 
sidered. 


XXXVl 


INTESTATE  SUCCESSION. 


Other  particulars  of  the  jurisprudence  of  New  Nether- 
land  may  be  gleaned  from  the  documents  and  the  archives 
relating  to  the  Dutch  period  of  our  history.  Intestate 
succession,  or  inheritances  ab  intestato,  were  regulated  by 
the  Aasdom's-recht 1  peculiar  to  Amsterdam,  Leyden,  and 
many  other  cities  and  districts  in  Holland,  and  not  by  the 
Schependom's-recht,  peculiar  to  South  Holland.  These 
laws  were  different  in  origin  and  principle.  By  the  former 
law,  observed  here,  the  next  of  blood  inherited,  whereas 
by  Schependom's-recht  the  property  reverted  to  the  source 
from  whence  it  came.  With  that  tolerance  and  liberality 
then  peculiar  to  the  civilization  of  the  Netherlands,  the 
English  inhabitants  of  New  Netherland  were  permitted  to 
hold  real  estate  here,  make  settlements  of  their  own,  and  to 
dispose  of  their  property  by  will  at  pleasure,  although  the 
law  of  New  Netherland  regulated  their  successions  ab   ord.  of 

N.  Neth. 

intestato.    The  law  relative  to  wills  in  force  here  under  467. 
the  Dutch  also  conformed  to  the  law  of  the  Fatherland,  as 
may  be  readily  perceived  by  an  examination  of  the  records 
of  the  Dutch  epoch ;  so  the  domestic  relations,  such  as  the   ord.  of 

,  .  ....  .   ,      ,  -        .  N.  Neth., 

institution  of  marriage,  the  incidents  of  the  law  of  real,  or  152. 
immovable,  property,  including  servitudes,  and,  in  short, 
the  entire  range  of  private  law  when  not  modified  by 
the  statutes  of  the  company,  were  governed  by  the  law 
of  Holland. 

Yet  the  exigencies  of  a  frontier  life,  among  so  small  and 
so  diffused  a  population  as  that  of  the  Dutch  in  New 
Netherland,  demanded  very  little  actual  law.  The  chief 
settlements  on  the  mainland  were  only  trading-posts, 
clustering  around  some  stockade  or  fort;  and  beyond 
these  mantelets  stretched  a  few  outlying  and  rough  farms. 

1  Doc.  rel.  Col.  Hist.  N.  Y.,  I,  620.     (It  also  governed  intestate  succession  to  feuds 

within  the  province.) 

%*  xxxvii 


NATURE  OF  SETTLEMENTS. 


The  seaport  of  New  Amsterdam  was  a  mere  hamlet  and 
fort,  and  the  houses  within  its  precincts  extended  only  to 
the  north  wall — the  present  line  of  Wall  street.  A  little 
beyond  the  wall  lay  the  virgin  forest,  almost  unbroken 
until  it  reached  the  village  of  Nieuw  Haerlem.  Without 
the  wall  and  on  the  wild  shores  of  the  North  and  the  East 
rivers  were  several  isolated  farm-houses,  at  wide  intervals 
apart.  In  the  year  1664,  with  the  exception  of  Nieuw 
Haerlem  and  the  Governor's  farm,  or  bouwery,  which  was 
nearly  midway  on  the  woodland  road  to  Nieuw  Haerlem, 
there  were  very  few  habitations  outside  the  fort  on  the 
entire  island  of  Manhattan.  On  Long  Island  the  Dutch 
villages  and  the  farming  communities  lived  in  a  greater 
natural  security,  and  the  stockades  usual  elsewhere  were 
notably  absent.  On  the  Delaware  the  settlements,  still 
more  distant  and  wild,  were  of  the  same  general  character. 
It  is  evident  that  neither  the  Dutch  village  communities 
nor  the  traders  and  the  sailors  of  the  seaports  could  require 
much  actual  law,  excepting  that  of  the  police  correctionnelle . 
Yet  whenever  the  law  of  New  Netherland  was  invoked  it 
moved  on  the  lines  and  according  to  the  theories  indicated. 
It  is  to  be  regarded,  therefore,  not  as  a  possible  system, 
but  as  an  actual  one,  well  worthy  of  intelligent  considera- 
tion, although  it  was  destined  soon  to  disappear. 

By  the  year  1662  the  settlements  of  New  Netherland 
began  to  prosper,  though  they  had  long  languished  in 
comparison  with  those  of  the  border  colonies  of  England. 
The  increasing  prosperity  of  New  Netherland  was  quickly 
noticed  by  the  English,  and  particularly  by  their  ambas- 
sador at  The  Hague,  Sir  George  Downing,  a  native 
of  New  England  and  one  of  the  early  graduates  of  Har- 
vard College.  After  the  year  1660  the  English  colonies 
had  carried  on  with  New  Netherland  an  extensive  but 

xxxviii 


ENGLISH  AGGRESSION. 


surreptitious  trade  intended  to  circumvent  the  British 
Acts  of  Trade  and  Navigation,  prohibiting  all  commerce 
between  the  English  colonies  and  any  foreign  dominion. 
By  shipping  to  New  Amsterdam  their  tobacco  and  pro- 
duce,  the  English   colonies  were  enabled  to  carry  on   Coi.  Hist. 

&  J     .  N.  Y.,111. 

a  virtual  foreign  trade  in  Dutch  bottoms.    The  English   44. 47- 
Council  of  Foreign  Plantations  soon  learned  that  New 
Netherland  enabled  the  American  colonies  of  England 
to  defeat  the  act  of  1660.    Thus  public  attention  was   11.,  c.  18. 
again  called  in  England  very  pointedly  to  the  dormant 
claim  to  New  Netherland.    When  the  extinction  of  the 
Dutch  colony  was  at  last  determined  on,  nothing  was 
more  simple  than  to  revive  the  English  pretensions  to 
the  Hudson  and  the  Delaware  rivers.    Unfortunately  the 
Dutch  West  India  Company  was  then  bankrupt,  while  its 
political  opponents  ruled  the  United  Provinces  and  refused   Asher's  in- 
to press  vigorously  upon  the  English  government  the  ^ductlon' 
company's  claim  to  New  Netherland. 

In  this  situation  of  affairs  the  house  of  Stuart  deemed 
that  the  time  to  put  down  the  Dutch  power  in  New 
Netherland  had  arrived.  Although  England  and  Hol- 
land were  then  at  peace,  on  12-22  March,  1664,  King 
Charles  II.  granted  to  his  brother  the  Duke  of  York  and 
Albany  a  patent  for  "All  that  part  of  the  maineland  of  New 
England  beginning  at  a  certain  place  called  or  known  by 
the  name  of  St.  Croix  next  adjoining  to  New  Scotland  in 
America  and  from  thence  extending  along  the  Sea  Coast 
unto  a  certain  place  called  Petuaquine  or  Pemaquid  and  so 
up  the  river  thereof  to  the  furthest  head  of  the  same  as  it 
tendeth  Northwards  and  extending  from  thence  to  the 
River  Kinebequi  and  so  Upwards  by  the  Shortest  course 
to  the  River  Canada  Northward.  And  also  all  that  Island 
or  Islands  commonly  called  by  the  several  name  or  names 

xxxix 


duke  of  york's  patent. 


of  Matowacks  or  Long  Island  situate  lying  and  being 
towards  the  West  of  Cape  Cod  and  the  Narrow  Higan- 
setts  abutting  upon  the  main  land  between  the  two  Rivers 
there  called  or  known  by  the  several  names  of  Connecticut 
and  Hudsons  River  together  also  with  the  said  River 
called  Hudsons  River  and  all  the  Land  from  the  West  side 
of  Connecticut  to  the  East  side  of  Delaware  Bay  and  also 
all  those  several  Islands  called  or  known  by  the  Names  of 
CoLHis't    Martin's  Vinyard  and  Nantukes  otherwise  Nantuckett." 

N.  Y.,  II, 

295. "'  This  grant  included  all  the  territory  occupied  and  governed 
by  the  Dutch  for  more  than  half  a  century.  That  the  West 
India  Company  had  no  formal  patent  from  the  States- 
General  for  the  territory  in  question  had  long  been  made  a 

Doc.  rel. 

coi.  Hist,  point  of  by  the  English,  and  the  specific  grant  to  the  Duke 
332.  '  was  intended  not  only  to  supply  this  legal  vacuum,  but  to 
justify  the  patentee  in  the  contemplated  course  of  spoliation 
and  conquest,  and  so  enable  the  crown  to  do  indirectly 
what  could  not  be  justified  directly  by  the  law  of  nations. 
Armed  with  this  patent  and  the  viceregal  authority  it 
contained,  the  Duke  of  York  as  Lord  High  Admiral  of 
England  quickly  sent  an  armed  expedition  under  the 
command  of  Colonel  Richard  Nicolls  to  subdue  the  Dutch 
of  New  Netherland.  At  the  same  time  Colonel  Nicolls, 
Sir  Robert  Carre,  George  Cartwright,  and  Samuel 
Maverick  were  despatched  by  the  King  as  his  commis- 
sioners, ostensibly  to  visit  the  colony  of  Massachusetts, 
but  with  private  instructions  to  reduce  "  the  Dutch  in  or 
CoLHis't.  neare  Long  Island,  or  anywhere  within  ye  limitts  of  our 
f2.Y''  ni'   owne  dominions  to  an  entire  obedience  to  our  government." 

Long  Island  being  first  subdued,  on  27  August,  1664  (old 
style),  the  city  of  New  Amsterdam,  the  capital  of  New 
col  Hist.    Netherland,  surrendered  to  the  English  under  formal  and 
250.  '  '    regular  articles  of  capitulation,  the  terms  and  legal  effect 

xl 


NEW-YORK. 


of  which  will  be  noticed  hereafter.    In  September  follow- 

r  Doc.  rel. 

ing,  Fort  Orange  surrendered,  and  a  little  later  the  Dela-   coi.  Hist. 
&'  &  '  n.  y.,iii, 

ware  country  capitulated  under  separate  articles.    New  69-  n- 
Amsterdam  was  immediately  named  New-York,  and  Fort 
Orange,  Albany.    Colonel  Nicolls  now  proceeded  to  estab- 
lish a  civil  government  by  virtue  of  his  commission  and 
the  Duke  of  York's  patent.   To  the  country  west  of  the 

Doc.  rel. 

Hudson  River  he  gave  the  name  of  Albania,  and  to  Long  coi.  Hist. 
Island  that  of  Yorkshire.    The  entire  province  was  called  105. 
New-York.    When  the  changed  condition  of  affairs  was 

0  Doc.  rel. 

communicated  to  Holland,  the  States-General  made  a  coi.  Hist. 

N.  Y.,  II, 

formal  but  vain  demand  for  restitution  from  England.  275-294. 
But  not  until  22  February,  1665,  did  King  Charles  II. 
formally  declare  war  against  the  States- General.  During 
the  entire  war  New  Netherland  remained  in  possession  of 
the  English,  and  by  an  uti  possidetis  clause  of  the  treaty 
of  peace  signed  at  Breda,  31  July,  1667,  it  was  formally 
ceded  to  the  English  crown.  This  formal  cession  was 
the  only  substantial  advantage  England  derived  from 
the  entire  war. 

At  the  time  when  dominion  over  New  Netherland  was 
transferred  to  the  English  crown,  the  principles  of  repre- 
sentative government  had  no  place  in  the  colonial  estab- 
lishment of  the  Dutch  West  India  Company.  The  burgo- 
masters and  schepens  of  New  Amsterdam  after  the  year 
1658  had  been  permitted  to  nominate  a  double  number  of 
persons  from  whom  the  new  magistrates  might  be  chosen 
by  the  Director,  and  the  same  practice  obtained  in  the 
villages  of  the  province ;  but  the  condition  of  the  settle- 
ments, the  lack  of  easy  communication  between  them,  as 
well  as  the  poverty  and  the  occupations  of  the  few  scat- 
tered inhabitants,  struggling  to  subdue  the  powers  of  the 
wilderness,  made  impracticable  any  more  advanced  type 

xli 


ACTUAL  CONDITIONS  IN  1664. 


of  government  than  that  introduced  by  the  West  India 
Company.  When  we  read  the  history  of  New  Nether- 
land  the  very  language  itself  is  apt  to  mislead,  for  the 
reader's  mind  conjures  up  from  it  ideas  usually  associ- 
ated with  a  mighty  state,  and  he  forgets  that  the  settle- 
ments and  the  government  of  the  Dutch  in  New  Nether- 
land  were  in  the  year  1664  in  a  most  rudimentary 
condition — one  suitable  to  a  feeble  colony  situated  at 
the  extremity  of  the  then  known  world.  Yet  as  the  early 
laws  and  institutions  of  New  Netherland  had  important 
ulterior  consequences,  they  possess  a  potential  signifi- 
cance in  jurisprudence  far  in  excess  of  their  real  value. 
Under  the  English  rule  the  people  of  Dutch  descent 
flourished  greatly,  and  from  their  many  sterling  qualities 
of  race  and  temperament  they  were  at  all  times  an  in- 
fluential element  of  the  population  of  the  Province  of 
New-York. 


xlii 


CHAPTER  II. 


HE  introduction  of  English  laws  into  the 
Province  of  New-York  by  the  Duke's  gov- 
ernment was  very  gradual.  For  some  time 
after  the  conquest  naturally  there  was  in 
force  here,  as  in  other  conquered  countries,  a  personal, 
as  contradistinguished  from  a  territorial,  law.  The  con- 
querors and  the  conquered  lived  together,  and  both  pre- 
served their  separate  manners  and  laws  to  some  extent 
until  the  work  of  organizing  the  province  on  the  basis 
of  the  Duke's  patent  was  gradually  completed.  Intuition 
alone  would  affirm  that  the  subsidence  of  the  Dutch  law 
must  have  been  as  gradual  as  the  evidence  demonstrates 
that  it  was.  We  well  know  that  the  English  did  not 
exterminate  the  original  Dutch  settlers  nor  at  once  pro- 

xliii 


JUS  CORONA. 


Lieut. -Gov. 
Colden's 
Letters  on 
Smith's 
History ; 
N.  Y.  Hist. 
Society's 
Collections 
for  1868, 
p.  183. 


Mitchel  v. 
U.  S.,  9 
Peters, 
711,  748. 


hibit  the  exercise  of  their  laws  and  customs.  Nor  did 
the  conqueror  flagrantly  violate  the  articles  of  surrender 
solemnly  made  with  the  subdued  authorities.  On  the  con- 
trary, these  articles  seem  to  have  been  given  for  a  long 
period  an  unusual  force  and  obligation.  Step  by  step, 
and  in  an  orderly  manner,  the  Duke's  agents  incorpo- 
rated the  Dutch  into  an  English  political  community,  or 
one  whose  inspiration  was  drawn  from  the  manners,  the 
customs,  and  the  laws  of  England.  Necessarily,  at  a  late 
period,  a  few  of  the  institutions  of  the  original  European 
settlers  are  to  be  found  grafted,  as  it  were,  on  the  law  of 
the  Province  of  New- York.  Unfortunately,  through  the 
neglect  or  the  indifference  of  the  State  authorities,  much 
of  the  material  which  would  enable  us  to  portray  accu- 
rately the  growth  of  the  early  legal  institutions  of  New- 
York  has  been  permitted  to  fall  into  a  poor  condition. 

Assuming  that  the  land  occupied  by  the  Dutch  was 
rightfully  vested  in  the  crown  of  England,  the  power  of 
King  Charles  II.  to  grant  the  patent  of  1664  to  the  Duke 
of  York  could  not  be  denied  on  the  ground  that  the  law 
was  then  obscure.  At  an  early  stage  of  English  colonial 
development,  the  extent  of  the  right  of  the  kings  of  Eng- 
land to  the  newly  found  lands  of  America  was  fully  con- 
sidered by  jurists.  At  first  the  King  was  regarded  as 
seized  of  all  unsettled  colonial  lands,  as  of  his  own 
demesne,  but  afterward  as  seized  in  jure  coronce,  and 
thenceforth  alienations  thereof  were  secundum  jus  coronce. 
Had  King  Charles  II.  been  rightfully  seized  of  the  lands 
possessed  by  the  Dutch,  his  power  to  grant  this  patent  to 
the  Duke  of  York  could  not  have  been  questioned  as  the 
prerogative  then  stood;  but  the  fact  that  the  patent  of  1664 
was  made  before  the  King's  conquest  or  possession  of 
New  Netherland,  raised  doubts  as  to  the  validity  of  the 

xliv 


t 


CONQUERED  PROVINCE. 


Duke's  first  parchment  title  to  the  province,  and  was  to 
some  extent  a  reason  for  the  procurement  of  a  new  patent 
in  1674,  in  nearly  the  same  terms  as  those  of  the  old. 
Both  of  these  patents  conformed  to  the  theories  of  the  law 
advisers  of  the  crown,  and  were  closely  associated  with 
certain  historical  instances.  They  were  not  inventions  of 
the  lawyers  themselves.  In  the  time  of  the  earlier  Stuarts, 
the  English  crown  agents  had  found  precedents  for  the 
erection  of  proprietary  governments  in  America,  either  in 
the  old  English  counties  palatine,  which  enjoyed  a  quasi- 
independent  but  subordinate  government,  or  else  in  the 
remnant  of  the  duchy  of  Normandy  remaining  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  English  kings  —  the  islands  of  Jersey, 
Guernsey,  and  Sark.  These  latter  countries  were  out  of 
the  realm, — that  is,  beyond  the  borders  of  England:  "ex- 
tra quatuor  maria,"  as  it  was  called, — and  consequently 
they  were  thought  by  the  formalists  of  the  time  to  present 
a  closer  analogy  to  the  American  possessions  than  even 
the  counties  palatine  of  England.  Thus  it  was  that,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  Channel  Islands,  appeals  of  last  resort  from 
all  the  colonies  originally  lay  to  the  King  or  to  the  King 
in  council,  and  not  to  the  ordinary  courts  of  England. 

The  right  of  King  Charles  II.  to  delegate  so  extensive  a 
legislative  power  as  that  contained  in  the  Duke  of  York's 
patent,  is  justified  also  by  the  theory  that  the  political 
status  of  New-York  was  that  of  a  conquered  province.  It 
was  undoubtedly  so  regarded  by  the  chief  law-officers  of 
the  crown.  There  was  in  England  at  that  time  a  con- 
siderable body  of  law  sometimes  known  as  crown  law,  or 
the  law  relating  to  the  prerogatives  of  the  crown.  When 
a  country  was  acquired  by  conquest  or  treaty,  the  King 
possessed  an  exclusive  prerogative  power  over  it,  and 
might  entirely  change  or  model  anew  the  whole  or  part  of 

xlv 


Campbell 
v.  Hall, 
Cowper, 
204 ;  S.  O, 
20  Howell's 
State  Trials, 
239 ;  Perm 
v.  Lord 
Baltimore, 
1  Ves.  Sr., 
444,  451- 


COMMON  LAW  OF  ENGLAND. 


chitty's  its  laws  and  political  forms  of  government,  and  might 
dves°ga    govern  it  by  regulations  framed  by  himself.   As,  however, 

crown,     a  country  conquered  by  British  arms  became  a  dominion 

29. 

of  the  King  in  right  of  his  crown,  it  was  finally  said  in 
England  to  be  necessarily  subject  to  the  legislature  of 
Great  Britain.  The  King  might  preclude  himself  from  the 
exercise  of  his  prerogative  legislative  authority  in  the  first 

Chitty's       .  111  1 

Preroga-    instance  over  a  conquered  or  ceded  country  by  promising 

tives 

of  the      to  vest  it  in  an  assembly  of  the  inhabitants,  or  by  any 

Crown,  m  , 

30-  other  measure  of  a  similar  nature.  This  we  have  seen 
that  he  did  by  his  grant  to  the  Duke  of  York.  Had 
New- York  been  regarded  by  the  crown  lawyers  as  a 
country  acquired  by  England  by  right  of  discovery  and 
occupation  under  the  law  of  nations,  the  entire  course  of 
legislation  and  administration  of  this  province  by  the 
crown  must  have  been  essentially  different  from  what  it 
was.  Much  confusion  on  this  subject  has  been  created  by 
a  desire  to  account  for  the  introduction  of  the  English 
common  law  in  New- York  by  a  presumption  of  the  early 
jurists, — it  being  thought  by  many,  in  deference  to  the 
text  of  the  early  English  commentators  on  colonial  law, 
that  the  mode  in  which  the  English  common  law  was  in- 
troduced into  countries  acquired  by  England  by  discovery 
and  occupation,  was  quite  different  from  the  mode  adopted 
in  the  case  of  countries  acquired  by  conquest  or  by  cession. 
But  a  careful  analysis  of  the  laws  of  the  different  colonies 
of  England  undoubtedly  demonstrates  that  the  English 

Stoke's 

constitu-   common  law  was  set  in  force  by  some  equivalent  of  legis- 
Brltish     lation  in  all  the  transmarine  possessions  of  England  where 
30.         it  obtains ;  so  that  in  reality  the  manner  in  which  such 
countries  have  been  acquired  by  England  makes  no  real 
difference  in  the  end.    The  early  English  cases  did  not 
pretend  that  the  English  law  was  in  force  in  those  unin- 

xlvi 


GOVERNOR  RICHARD  NICOLLS. 


habited  countries  discovered  and  settled  by  the  English ; 
but  the  law  of  nature,  as  it  was  called,  was  said  to  ob- 
tain there.  Later  commentators,  however,  invented  the 
theory  that  the  common  law  was  ipso  facto  in  force,  over- 
looking the  fact  that  whenever  a  colonial  government, 
even  of  the  roughest  kind,  was  established,  the  English 
authorities  prescribed,  in  some  formal  manner,  the  extent 
to  which  English  laws  should  there  have  what  may  be 
termed  an  extra-territorial  operation.  In  the  case  of  New- 
York  we  are  enabled  to  ascertain  the  precise  mode  in  which 
law  of  English  original  was  introduced.  Here  there  is  no 
room  for  either  the  presumptions  or  the  theories  of  jurists 
to  the  contrary. 

In  all  proprietary  establishments  the  powers  of  the  chief 
ministers  of  government  were  usually  determined  by  their 
respective  commissions  and  instructions  from  the  pro- 
prietor, whose  grant  in  turn  furnished  the  criterion  of  the 
political  authority.  Richard  Nicolls,  the  first  deputy  gov- 
ernor, brought  with  him  both  of  these  instruments,  but 
the  precise  tenor  of  his  instructions  from  the  Duke  can  at 
present  be  ascertained  only  from  declarations  as  to  their 
contents.1  Under  his  commission  Colonel  Nicolls  was 
enabled  to  execute  all  the  powers  granted  to  the  Duke 
of  York  by  the  patent  from  King  Charles  II.  The  com- 
mission was  virtually  a  letter  of  attorney  from  the  lord 
proprietor.  By  the  terms  of  his  patent,  the  Duke,  his 
"  heirs,  Deputies,  Agents,  Commissioners  and  Assigns 
had  full  and  absolute  power  and  authority  to  correct, 
punish,  pardon,  govern  and  rule  all "  the  King's  subjects 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  II, 
252,  415; 
Clarendon 
Papers, 
N.  Y.  Hist. 
Society's 
Collections 
for  1869,  p. 
119;  N.  Y. 
Patents.  I, 
1 16,  1 18. 


1  The  practice  of  retaining  in  their  own 
custody  many  instruments  of  this  character 
prevailed  to  a  great  extent  among  the  earlier 
colonial  governors.  (General  Introduction, 
Doc.  rel.  Col.  Hist.  N.  Y.,  XXXI,  XXXII.) 


For  instance,  Lord  Cornbury's  commission 
and  instructions  were  but  recently  found 
with  difficulty ;  they  are,  however,  now  in 
the  Library  of  the  New- York  Historical 
Society. 


xlvii 


duke  of  york's  patent. 


"who  may  from  time  to  time  adventure  themselves  into  any 
the  parts  or  places"  granted,  "or  that  shall  or  do  at  any 
time  hereafter  inhabit  within  the  same,  according  to  such 
Laws,  Orders,  Ordinances,  Directions  and  Instruments" 
as  the  Duke  or  his  assigns  should  establish.  "And  in 
defect  thereof  in  cases  of  necessity  according  to  the  good 
discretions  of  his  Deputies,  Commissioners,  Officers  or 
Assigns  respectively  as  well  in  all  causes  and  matters 
Capital  and  Criminal  as  civil  both  marine  and  others 
So  always  as  the  said  Statutes  Ordinances  and  proceed- 
ings be  not  contrary  to  but  as  near  as  conveniently  may 
be  agreeable  to  the  Laws,  Statutes  &  Government  of  this 
Our  Realm  of  England  And  saving  and  reserving  to  us 
Our  Heirs  and  Successors  the  receiving,  hearing  and  de- 
termining of  the  Appeal  and  Appeals  of  all  or  any  Person 
or  Persons  of  in  or  belonging  to  the  territories  or  Islands 
aforesaid  in  or  touching  any  Judgment  or  Sentence  to 
be  there  made  or  given.  .  .  .  And  also  to  make,  ordain 
and  establish  all  manner  of  Orders,  Laws,  directions,  in- 
structions, forms  and  Ceremonies  of  Government  and 
Magistracy  fit  and  necessary  for  and  Concerning  the 
Government  of  the  territories  and  Islands  aforesaid  so 
always  as  the  same  be  not  contrary  to  the  laws  and 
coi.  Hist.     statutes  of  this  Our  Realm  of  England  but  as  near  as  may 

N.  Y.  II, 

296,297/  be  agreeable  thereunto."  From  the  language  just  given 
the  nature  of  the  powers  intrusted  to  Governor  Nicolls 
may  be  readily  perceived.  As  the  law  of  England  stood, 
even  before  the  remedial  statutes  enacted  in  the  reigns  of 
William  III.  and  subsequent  sovereigns,  an  infraction  by  a 
Br°idfhSSS  colonial  governor  of  any  delegated  power  of  government 
i,e2i7men  s'  might  be  redressed  at  the  King's  Bar  in  Westminster. 

The  political  authority  of  the  English  over  the  Dutch 
of  New  Netherland  was  at  the  outset  limited  by  the  terms 

xlviii 


ARTICLES  OF  SURRENDER. 


of  the  capitulation.  Conditions  of  surrender  are  by  the  law 
of  nations  within  the  province  of  military  commanders, 
and  do  not  ordinarily  require  the  sanction  of  their  respec- 
tive sovereigns.  By  the  articles  of  capitulation  in  question 
the  Dutch  then  in  New  Netherland  were  guaranteed 
certain  permanent  rights :  such  as  liberty  of  conscience  in 
divine  worship  and  church  discipline;  the  protection  of 
church  property;  the  enjoyment  of  their  own  customs 
concerning  their  inheritances ;  the  safe  preservation  of 
public  records  relative  to  inheritances  or  to  the  church ; 
the  retention  of  the  Dutch  magistrates  until  time  of  new 
elections,  and  then  the  choice  of  new  ones,  provided  such 
were  in  allegiance  to  the  King  of  England ;  contracts 
made  prior  to  the  capitulation  were  to  be  determined  by 
Dutch  law  only,  and  no  judgment  previously  rendered 
might  be  disturbed  except  by  the  States-General ;  all 
denizens  were  to  enjoy  their  property  and  dispose  of  the 
same  at  pleasure.  The  benefit  of  these  articles  was  not  con- 
fined to  the  inhabitants  of  the  city  of  New  Amsterdam  and 
the  adjacent  communities,  but  extended  to  those  of  Long 
Island  and  the  settlements  on  the  upper  Hudson.  The 
country  about  the  Delaware  was  separately  surrendered, 
but  on  like  terms.  In  so  far  as  the  Dutch  antenati  were 
concerned,  these  articles  at  first  formed  the  fundamental 
law  of  the  province.  Whether  the  privileges  thus  guaran- 
teed extended  to  those  Dutch  subjects  who  might  by  the 
terms  of  the  articles  thereafter  freely  come  and  settle  in 
the  province,  or  to  the  postnati  of  Dutch  descent,  was 
never  decided  by  the  courts  of  the  period.  Many  of  the 
Dutch  inhabitants  refused  an  invitation  of  the  new  English 
Governor  to  take  the  proposed  oath  of  allegiance  to  his 
sovereign,  until  he  had  declared  in  writing  "  that  the 
articles  of  surrender  are  not  in  the  least  broken  by  any 

4  xlix 


R.  L.  of 

N.  Y.,  II, 
1813,  Ap- 
pendix, I. 


Charter 
and  Laws 
of  the  Prov- 
ince of 
Pennsyl- 
vania, 446. 

Chitty's 
Preroga- 
tives of  the 
Crown,  29; 
Sir  John 
Randolph  ; 
Smith's 
History  of 
New-York, 
London 
edition, 
1757,  P-  248. 


PROPRIETARY  GOVERNMENT. 


H.  B.  Daw- 
son's "Sons 
of  Liberty 
in  New- 
York," 
pp.  14-16; 
Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  Ill, 
74- 

Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  Ill, 
176. 


Chalmers's 
Colonial 
Opinions, 
745.  747- 


Coke's 
Institutes, 
IV,  204. 


words  or  expressions  in  the  said  oath."  With  this  under- 
standing, many  of  the  principal  citizens  then  took  the  oath. 
Yet  such  a  declaration  could  be  only  explanatory  of  the  arti- 
cles. The  precise  effect  of  the  naturalization,  or  of  a  trans- 
fer of  allegiance,  upon  the  articles  of  capitulation,  remained 
a  question  for  the  courts;  for  the  Governor's  declaration  was 
probably  in  law  a  mere  sponsion.  After  the  cession  of  the 
province  under  the  Treaty  of  Breda,  the  only  redress  for  a 
breach  of  the  articles  of  capitulation  was  vested  in  the  new 
sovereign,  and  no  longer  in  the  States-General. 

Excepting  in  so  far  as  they  were  limited  by  the  articles 
of  surrender,  the  powers  of  the  new  government  estab- 
lished under  the  Duke  of  York  were  those  incidental  to 
governments  termed  proprietary  by  the  later  English 
jurists.  In  granting  the  first  patent  to  his  brother,  the 
grantor,  King  Charles  II.,  feigned  to  assume  that  he  was 
owner  of  the  entire  territory  of  New  Netherland  as  of 
other  crown  lands  in  America.  This  assumption  added 
no  validity  or  force  to  the  English  claim  to  the  soil,  but  it 
was  very  helpful  in  aiding  the  crown  to  establish  in  ad- 
vance a  civil  government  for  the  country  when  it  should 
be  subdued  as  contemplated.  In  England,  even  under  the 
Stuarts,  the  forms  of  law  were  generally  observed,  and 
theoretically  the  grant  to  the  Duke  of  York  was  made  to 
conform  outwardly  to  the  law  regulating  the  prerogative 
in  cases  of  grants  of  crown  lands.  By  the  terms  of  the 
patent  the  Duke  was  created  lord  proprietor  of  the  new 
province,  and  was  to  hold  the  same  as  a  fief  of  the  crown. 
He  was  invested  with  all  the  regalities  and  subordinate 
powers  of  legislation  which  formerly  belonged  to  the 
owners  of  counties  palatine  in  England.  He  could  estab- 
lish courts  and  make  new  laws,  not  contrary  to,  but  agree- 
able to,  the  laws,  statutes,  and  government  of  England;  but 

1 


THE  LORD  PROPRIETOR. 


the  hearing  of  appeals  was  expressly  reserved  to  the 
crown.  The  powers  of  the  lord  proprietor  depended  alto- 
gether on  the  terms  of  the  patent.  In  this  connection  it 
should  not  be  forgotten  that  the  powers  of  government 
thus  conferred  on  the  lord  proprietor  by  the  royal  patent 
reflected  the  existing  state  of  the  prerogative  in  England. 
It  has  been  well  said  that  "the  conflict  between  James  and 
Coke,  Bacon's  theory  of  the  prerogative,  Charles'  effort  to 
substitute  the  personal  will  of  Charles  Stuart  for  the  legal 
will  of  the  King  of  England,  are  all  matters  which  touch 
not  remotely  upon  the  problems  of  actual  law."  Therefore 
it  is  that  the  modern  lawyers'  conception  of  the  validity 
of  the  ancient  legislation  of  the  crown  or  its  delegates  is 
often  quite  at  variance  with  that  entertained  by  the  gentle- 
men of  the  robe  in  the  seventeenth  century.  This  nat- 
urally gives  rise  to  an  interesting  but  wholly  modern 
question  :  how  far  such  ancient  legislation  of  the  lord  pro- 
prietor of  New- York  is  to  be  considered  as  valid,  after  the 
prerogative  power  to  enact  it,  though  once  affirmed,  has 
been  constructively  declared  invalid  by  later  adjudications? 
A  precisely  similar  question  arises  concerning  the  legal 
effect  of  those  things  which  are  done  on  the  faith  of  an  act 
of  the  State  or  the  Federal  legislature,  afterward  declared 
by  the  courts  to  be  void  under  the  written  Constitution  of 
the  United  States.  Prior  to  the  English  Revolution  the 
question  indicated  was  not,  however,  a  living  one  in  juris- 
prudence, and  all  the  legislation  of  the  Duke  of  York  as 
lord  proprietor  of  the  Province  of  New- York,  when  not 
contrary  to  his  patent,  was  assumed  to  be  intra  vires  his 
regalities.  The  only  exception  to  this  assumption  oc- 
curred in  reference  to  the  lord  proprietor's  power  to  levy 
customs  dues  on  imports ;  this  exception  will  be  noticed 
in  historical  order. 

li 


Blackstone's 
Commen 
taries,  I, 
109  ;  Clark's 
Summary  of 
Colonial 
Law,  21. 


Dicey's  Law 
of  the  Con- 
stitution, 
17,  59- 


See  note  to 
17  Abbott's 
New  Cases, 
492. 

Holland's 
Elements 
of  Jurispru- 
dence, note 
4,  p.  58,  3d 
edition ; 
London  Law 
Quarterly,  I, 

312,  313 ; 

Woodruff  v. 

Woodruff, 

52,N.Y.,53. 


SUBSTITUTION  OF  ENGLISH  LAW. 


Letter  to 
Lord 

Chancellor 
Clarendon, 
30  July, 
1665;  N.Y. 
Hist. 
Society's 
Collections 
for  1869, 
p.  76. 


Town  of 
Southamp- 
ton 

v.  Mecox 
Bay 
Oyster 
Co.,  116 
N.  Y.,1,7. 


After  Colonel  Nicolls,  the  Duke's  deputy  governor,  had 
overthrown  the  Dutch  power  in  New  Netherland,  he  en- 
tered immediately  upon  the  task  of  establishing  the  gov- 
ernment delegated  by  King  Charles  II.  to  the  Duke  of 
York.  The  task  was  not  an  easy  one,  for  the  new  Gov- 
ernor found  the  Dutch  already  possessed  of  legal  institu- 
tions of  their  own;  but  the  substitution  of  the  English  law 
for  that  of  the  Dutch  was  rendered  more  easy  by  the  very 
little  actual  law  then  required  by  the  few  inhabitants  of  so 
new  and  so  vast  a  country,  as  well  as  by  the  similarity 
necessarily  existing  between  the  old  and  the  new  types 
of  government;  for  both  were  governments  ab  extra,  de- 
signed for  persons  in  that  colonial  status  established  by 
the  consensus  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Besides,  there 
were  already  many  English  in  the  province,  some  of  them 
possessing  on  Long  Island  settlements,  or  distinct  villages, 
and  the  right  of  enacting  their  own  town  regulations. 
These  inhabitants  naturally  welcomed  the  law  of  their 
own  race.  The  poverty  and  the  sturdy  independence  of 
the  settlers  somewhat  embarrassed  Colonel  Nicolls  in  the 
work  assigned  to  him  of  establishing  the  English  author- 
ity and  laws. 

The  first  step  of  Colonel  Nicolls  toward  the  organiza- 
tion of  civil  government  in  the  conquered  province  was 
directed  toward  the  portion  already  inhabited  by  the  Eng- 
lish. For  this  purpose  Long  Island,  Staten  Island,  and 
Westchester  County,  the  more  English  sections  of  the 
province,  were  erected  into  a  shire,  called  Yorkshire, 
which,  like  Yorkshire  in  England,  was  divided  into  three 
distinct  portions  termed  "ridings."  The  Governor  and 
Council  were  to  appoint  a  high  sheriff  for  the  shire,  and 
a  high  constable  as  deputy  sheriff  for  each  riding;  also 
justices  of  the  peace,  to  continue  in  office  during  the  Gov- 

lii 


ORGANIZATION  OF  GOVERNMENT. 


ernor's  pleasure.    The  justices  were  to  hold  courts  of  ses- 
sions in  each  riding  three  times  every  year,  in  which  the 
Governor  or  any  of  his  Council  might  preside ;  and  in 
their  absence  the  senior  justice  presided.    The  president 
of  the  court  charged  the  jury  on  the  law,  and  pronounced 
the  sentence.     Once  in  each   year  the  justices  of  the 
peace  and  the  high  sheriff  were  to  sit  at  New- York  city 
with  the  Governor  and  his  Council  in  the  Court  of  As- 
sizes.   The  nature  of  the  latter  court  has  been  somewhat 
debated.    It  has  been  thought  to  have  been  a  continua- 
tion of  the  old  court  of  the  Dutch  Director-General  and 
Council.    But  similarity  is  often  mistaken  for  identity. 
The  Court  of  Assizes  afterward  regulated  by  the  Duke's 
Laws  was  at  first  simply  the  general  court  of  the  province, 
invested  with  such  convenient  powers  as  Colonel  Nicolls 
under  his  instructions  chose  to  confer  on  it.    When  more 
thoroughly  organized  subject  to  the  Governor's  negative, 
it  had  the  "power  of  making,  altering  and  abolishing  any  Coi/mst. 
Laws  in  this  government."    Any  more  highly  organized  iss. 
legislative  body  could  hardly  be  expected  at  that  stage 
of  the  province.    Unfortunately,  the  records  of  this  court 
have  never  been  published,  although  they  throw  much 
light  on  the  methods  by  which  particular  institutes  of  the 
English  law  were  established  in  the  place  of  the  former 
laws  of  the  Dutch. 

The  next  step  taken  by  the  Governor  was  to  summon 
delegates  elected  by  the  freeholders  of  the  districts  where 
the  English  were  in  the  ascendant,  to  a  convention  to  be 
held  at  Hempstead  on  the  last  day  of  February,  1664.  At 
this  convention  Colonel  Nicolls  proposed  a  scheme  of  taxes 
which  was  met  by  a  general  objection,  not  unprecedented, 
and  by  the  plea  in  substance  that  taxes  ought  to  be  levied 
by  consent  of  the  governed.    This  fundamental  principle 

a*  liii 


HEMPSTEAD  MEETING. 


Clarendon 
Papers, 
N.  Y.  Hist. 
Society's 
Collections 
for  1869, 
p.  119. 

Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  Ill, 
104. 


Collections 
for  the 
year  1809. 


of  a  constitutional  government  already  gave  signs  of  tak- 
ing root  in  the  wilderness.  This  meeting  is  chiefly  impor- 
tant because  here  the  Deputy  Governor  first  promulgated 
a  body  of  English  laws  of  very  great  interest  to  the  juris- 
prudence and  the  history  of  the  State.  Their  caption 
shows  that  they  were  collected  from  the  laws  of  the  other 
English  colonies,1  which  were  adapted  to  the  exigencies  of 
the  proprietary  government.2  Colonel  Nicolls,  in  Novem- 
ber, 1665,  requested  the  Duke  of  York  to  have  these  laws 
printed  in  England,  but  the  request  was  neglected.  The 
laws  promulgated  at  Hempstead,  together  with  their 
amendments  made  at  a  Court  of  Assizes  held  in  New- 
York  in  September  and  October  of  1665,  and  again  in 
1666,  were  first  printed  by  the  New- York  Historical 
Society.  In  printing  this  edition  the  manuscript  laws  in 
the  office  of  the  town  clerk  of  East  Hampton  were  used  by 
the  Society.  The  State  of  Pennsylvania  in  1879  also 
printed  the  Duke's  Laws  originally  transmitted  for  the  use 
of  the  settlements  on  the  Delaware  in  1676.  The  laws 
established  at  Hempstead  owed  their  force  and  validity 
entirely  to  the  Duke's  patent  from  the  crown.  They  were 
in  no  sense  the  action  of  a  constituted  representative  as- 
sembly, although  the  amendments  mentioned  were  regu- 
larly enacted  at  the  general  court  of  the  province  —  the 


1  "  Lawes  establisht  by  the  Authority 
of  his  Majesties  Letters  patents,  granted 
to  his  Royal  Highness  James  Duke  of 
Yorke  and  Albany;  Bearing  Date  the  12th 
Day  of  March  in  the  Sixteenth  year  of 
the  Raigne  of  our  Sovereigne  Lord  Kinge 
Charles  the  Second."  "  Digested  into  one 
Volume  for  the  publicke  use  of  the  Terri- 
toryes  in  America  under  the  Government 
of  his  Royal  Highnesse."  "Collected  out 
of  the  Severall  Laws  now  in  force  in  his 
Majesties  American  Colonyes  and  Planta- 
tions."   "Published  March  the  1st  Anno 


Domini  1664  at  a  General  meeting  at 
Hemsted  upon  Longe  Island  by  virtue  of 
a  Commission  from  his  Royal  Highness 
James  Duke  of  Yorke  and  Albany  given 
to  Colonel  Richard  Nicolls  Deputy  Gov- 
erneur,  bearing  date  the  Second  day  of 
Aprill  1664." 

2  "The  code  was  evidently  the  work  of 
Nicolls  himself,  assisted  by  his  secretary, 
who  was  a  lawyer,  and  perhaps  by  other 
members  of  the  Court  of  Assizes."  John 
Russell  Bartlett,  in  "Historical  Magazine," 
VIII,  211. 


liv 


NEW  CODE. 


Court  of  Assizes,  which  Governor  Nicolls  invested  with 
the  supreme  legislative  power.  These  first  examples  of 
English  laws  were  known  in  the  province  as  the  "  Duke's 
Laws."  They  are,  however,  sometimes  called  "  Nicolls's 
Code,"  and  the  title  "Duke's  Laws"  then  refers  to  the 
code  and  amendments  finally  established  in  1674.  These 
laws,  never  authentically  printed  by  the  English,  were  very 
soon  deposited  in  manuscript  form  in  the  several  offices 
of  the  town  clerks  of  Yorkshire.  The  original  laws,  long 
kept  in  the  office  of  the  colonial  secretary,  are  now  in 
the  State  Library  at  Albany.  They  are  approved  by 
H.  R.  H.  the  Lord  Proprietor,  and  certified  by  his  private 
secretary.  There  is  another  volume  in  England,  which 
was  in  the  office  of  the  Lords  of  Trade  as  late  as  the  year 
1768.  For  a  time  the  operation  of  this  code  was  confined 
to  the  English  portion  of  the  province,  and  it  was  not 
promulgated  in  the  Dutch  parts  of  the  province.  It  went 
into  effect  on  the  Delaware  River,  with  some  exceptions 
peculiar  to  Long  Island,  only  in  September,  1676,  and 
among  the  Dutch  villages  at  Esopus  on  the  Hudson  three 
years  earlier.  In  the  city  of  New- York  the  Duke's  Laws 
were  not  introduced  until  they  were  established  generally 
by  the  Duke's  instructions  in  the  year  1674.  Until  these 
laws  were  so  established,  there  is  abundant  evidence  in  the 
local  records  that  the  former  laws  of  New  Netherland  were 
recognized  under  the  established  principle  of  the  English 
common  law,  that  the  laws  of  conquered  or  ceded  Chris- 
tian countries  remain  in  force  until  abrogated  by  the  con- 
queror. Long  subsequent  to  the  year  1674,  many  of  the 
principles  and  the  forms  of  procedure  peculiar  to  the  Dutch 
law  continued  to  be  recognized  and  followed  in  the  mayor's 
court  of  the  city  of  New-York. 

It  is  beyond  the  natural  limitations  of  this  Introduction 

lv 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.Y.,  III, 
188. 


C.  120,  Laws 
of  1881. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  VIII, 
81. 

Charter  of 
the  Province 
of  Pennsyl- 
vania; Duke 
of  York's 
Book  of 
Laws,  p.  445. 
Appendix ; 
Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  XII, 
561  ;  id., 
XIII,  471. 


Daly's 
Account 
of  the 
Judicial 
Organiza- 
tion of  the 
State,  XL. 


duke's  laws. 


to  do  more  than  outline  the  scope  of  Nicolls's  Code,  or  the 
n.  y.  Hist.  Duke's  Laws.  While  they  were  modeled  on  the  laws  of 
coSeSons  the  other  colonies,  they  were  less  democratic,  and  were 
for ^869,  mtended  by  their  author  to  revive  "the  memory  of  old 
England."  The  various  provisions  were  arranged  alpha- 
betically as  in  the  New  England  codes.  Having  regard 
to  the  fact  that  the  English  in  the  province  were  then  sub- 
ject to  no  settled  legal  system,  the  code  introduced  a  body 
of  law  relating  to  matters  both  of  substance  and  procedure 
in  a  manner  quite  adequate  to  the  slender  needs  of  so 
hardy  and  frugal  a  population.  The  Duke's  Laws  were 
very  precise  in  their  directions  to  the  new  magistrates 
concerning  the  proper  forms  of  judicial  business.  The 
classification  of  actions  into  "  Debts,  Accompts,  Slanders, 
Trespasse  and  Actions  of  the  Case "  indicated  that  the 
procedure  prescribed  was  that  recognized  by  the  common 
law  of  England,  and  to  that  extent  they  may  be  said  to 
have  introduced  necessarily  the  civil  procedure  and  the  ter- 
minology of  the  common  law  into  the  province.  They  like- 
wise embodied  a  criminal  code  defining  most  crimes  and 
their  punishments.  Cases  not  provided  for  were  to  be 
remitted  to  the  next  Court  of  Assizes,  where  punishment 
was  to  be  awarded  according  to  the  discretion  of  the 
bench,  and  not  contrary  to  the  known  laws  of  England. 
In  this  way  we  perceive  that  the  criminal  law  of  England 
was  introduced  here  to  some  extent  by  a  positive  edict 
CoL  Hist     of  no  uncertain  sound.    Yet  the  part  of  the  Duke's  Laws 

N  Y  XII 

621.  '  relative  to  criminals  was  more  humane  than  the  con- 
temporary law  of  England.  The  Laws  provided  that  all 
writs  should  run  in  the  King's  name,  not  in  that  of  the 
proprietor.  No  sheriff  or  other  officer  might  execute  any 
writ  on  the  Sabbath  day,  or  upon  "the  day  of  humiliation 
for  the  Death  of  the  late  King  of  Blessed  memory,"  ex- 

lvi 


TREATY  OF  BREDA. 


cepting  in  cases  of  escape,  riot,  or  felony.  The  essentials 
of  a  code  of  procedure  were  contained  in  the  laws,  and 
forms  for  the  opening  of  court  were  prescribed.  Trials 
by  jury  and  appeals  were  regulated.  Under  the  many 
titles  of  the  code  we  find  a  good  body  of  substantive 
law,  which,  while  sometimes  inartificial  when  judged  by 
the  standard  of  jurisprudence  familiar  to  the  older  coun- 
tries of  Europe,  was  well  adapted  to  the  early  settle- 
ments. Whether  all  the  provisions  of  the  Duke's  Laws, 
though  approved  by  him,  were  valid  by  the  limitations  of 
his  patent,  is  a  question  never  yet  determined  by  any  com- 
petent tribunal,  although  suggested  in  at  least  one  case. 
But  such  an  inquiry  is  beyond  the  purpose  of  this  Intro- 
duction, which  must  necessarily  treat  the  laws  as  historical 
facts  only. 

The  original  English  occupation  of  the  province  by 
force  of  arms  terminated  with  the  Treaty  of  Breda,  signed 
21-31  July,  1667.  By  the  third  article  of  this  instrument 
the  English  remained  in  possession  of  New- York  in  ex- 
change for  Surinam,  which  the  Dutch  in  turn  had  taken 
from  the  English.  This  retention  of  conquests  always 
prevailed  under  the  rule  uti  possidetis,  unless  otherwise 
stipulated  in  the  treaty  of  peace.  Thus  the  forcible  pos- 
session of  the  English  had  at  last  ripened  into  a  title  valid 
by  the  law  of  nations,  and  the  status  of  the  province 
became  clearly  that  of  a  ceded  country,  or  one  where  the 
law  hitherto  imposed  by  the  conquered  sovereign  re- 
mained in  full  force  until  it  was  expressly  abrogated  by 
the  conqueror.  The  Treaty  of  Breda  had  no  effect  upon 
the  rights  which  the  conquered  inhabitants  had  acquired 
by  virtue  of  the  articles  of  capitulation.  Immediately  after 
this  treaty,  Governor  Nicolls  was  recalled,  and  Colonel 
Francis  Lovelace  was  appointed  his  successor,  and  took 

lvii 


DUTCH  INTERREGNUM. 


possession  of  the  government  in  the  year  1668.  Colonel 
Lovelace  was  not  new  to  America.  One  of  those  English 
soldiers  of  fortune,  not  few  in  number,  who  had  a  taste  for 
travel  and  adventure,  he  had  visited  Long  Island  and 
Virginia  as  early  as  1650,  and  he  evidently  regarded  the 
New  World  as  a  proper  theater  for  the  exercise  of  his 
talents.  The  Duke's  commission  to  Colonel  Lovelace, 
which  formed  the  temporary  constitution  of  the  ceded 
province,  did  not  differ  from  that  of  his  predecessor,  ex- 
cepting that  Colonel  Lovelace  was  directed  to  make  no 
alteration  in  the  laws  of  the  government  settled  before 
his  arrival.  He  brought  with  him  the  formal  confirmation 
by  the  lord  proprietor  of  the  English  laws  established 
by  Colonel  Nicolls. 

During  the  armed  occupation,  and  prior  to  the  Treaty  of 
Breda,  the  English  had  already  substituted  a  considerable 
portion  of  their  own  law,  which  was  somewhat  irregularly 
applied  in  the  different  districts  of  the  province.  In 
course  of  time  the  new  laws,  however,  became  general  in 
application  ;  but  not  until  after  Colonel  Lovelace's  day, 
and,  indeed,  not  until  subsequent  to  the  Treaty  of  West- 
minster, which  closed  the  subsequent  war  waged  by 
Charles  II.  and  Louis  XIV.  against  the  United  Provinces. 
In  the  course  of  the  latter  conflict,  which  began  17  March, 
1672,  the  Dutch  conquered  New- York  on  30  July,  1673, 
and  again  occupied  the  country  for  the  space  of  fifteen 
months.  They  affixed  the  name  of  New  Netherland  to 
the  province ;  a  civil  governor  was  temporarily  designated 
by  their  naval  commanders,  and  the  city  of  New- York 
was  rechristened  New  Orange.  During  this  occupation 
in  so  far  as  possible  the  Dutch  restored  their  own  laws  and 
authority  throughout  the  entire  province  ;  but  they  were  of 
very  brief  duration.    By  the  sixth  article  of  the  Treaty  of 

lviii 


JUS  POSTLIMINII. 


Westminster,  signed  9-19  February,  1674,  the  province 
was  again  surrendered  by  the  Dutch  to  the  King  of 
England.  The  States-General  now  requested  the  King 
to  allow  the  inhabitants  of  New  Netherland  "the  enjoy- 
ment of  their  lands,  bouweries,  and  all  their  goods  and 
rights  which  they  possess  in  that  country ;  all  with  the 

same  right,  privilege  and  freedom  as  the  inhabitants  above  Coi.  Hist 
i-i  •  ,  N.  Y.,  11, 

mentioned  enjoyed  previous  to  the  aforesaid  war."    The  545- 

King  assured  the  Dutch  ambassador  that  he  should  issue  Doc.  reL 

the  necessary  order  to  effect  their  request.    The  legal  N?Y.,ilfs48. 

consequence  of  the  prior  oath  of  allegiance  taken  by  the 

Dutch  citizens  in  the  year  1664  was  not,  however,  dis-  coLHis't. 

cussed,  and  must  have  remained  as  before  the  war.    Major  ?66Y'' 11 ' 

Edmund  Andros,  the  first  governor  appointed  by  the  Duke 

after  the  restoration  of  the  province,  in  conformity  with 

his  instructions  "issued  a  proclamation  on  9  November, 

1674,"  declaring  "that  all  former  grants,  priviledges  and 

concessions  and  all  estates  legally  possessed  by  any  under 

•  t  Doc  rcl 

his  Royal  Highness  before  the  late  Dutch  government"   coi.  Hist. 

N.  Y  III 

were  thereby  confirmed.    This  proclamation  accorded  with  227. 
the  principle  of  the  law  of  nations  that  when  a  conquered 
country  is  recaptured,  the  rights  of  the  inhabitants  under 
charters  previously  granted  by  the  conqueror  revive  and 
are  restored  jure  ftostliminii,  the  intervening  conquest 
operating  merely  as  an  abeyance  or  as  a  suspension  of 
rights.    It  in  no  way  detracted  from  the  effect  which  the 
naturalization  had  on  the  articles  of  1664.    This  is  demon- 
strated by  the  nature  of  the  answers  returned  by  Governor 
Andros  to  the  proposals  sent  to  him  on  the  part  of  the 
Dutch  when  the  city  of  New-York  was  formally  delivered 
up  pursuant  to  the  Treaty  of  Westminster.    These  an- 
swers were  far  from  reinstating  in  their  integrity  the  jJ°Y.Hin 
articles  of  1664,  although  the  Dutch  were  distinctly  allowed  73' 

lix 


TREATY  OF  WESTMINSTER. 


Van 

Schaack's 
Laws  of 
New- York, 

If  83,  975 
Sed  vid. 
cases  infra. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  II, 

738,  739, 
740. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  V, 
495- 


N.  Y. 
Hist. 
Society's 
Collections 
for  1868, 
P-  183; 
Humbert 
v.  Trinity 
Church, 
24  Wen- 
dell, 624; 
Canal 
Commis- 
sioners v. 
People,  5 
id.,  446. 


Learning 
and 

Spicer's 
Grants,  47. 


to  retain  the  discipline  of  their  national  church  and  their 
customs  concerning  the  division  of  their  inheritances  for 
those  who  desired  it.  In  these  two  particulars  the 
articles  seem  to  have  been  observed  in  the  province  as 
long  as  they  were  invoked  by  the  Dutch  antenati.  The 
observance  of  the  other  articles  of  capitulation  soon  oc- 
casioned a  conflict  between  the  Governor  and  the  Dutch 
inhabitants  of  New- York,  who  finally  invoked  the  moral 
aid  of  the  States-General  for  the  infraction  of  the  arti- 
cles. A  subsequent  and  final  naturalization  of  all  the 
Dutch  then  inhabiting  the  colony,  by  an  act  of  the  first 
Assembly,  held  in  1683,  appears,  however,  to  have  avoided 
further  conflict.  Yet  the  extent  to  which  the  articles  of 
capitulation  remained  in  force  after  the  naturalization  of 
the  Dutch  and  the  Treaty  of  Westminster  has  always  been 
controverted.  When  the  Dutch  had  been  naturalized, 
and  there  were  no  longer  conquered  or  conquerors,  the 
stipulations  between  the  vanquished  and  the  victorious 
necessarily  ceased  to  be  applied,  or  even  applicable.  The 
better  opinion  is  that  the  only  permanent  clauses  of  the 
articles  related  to  the  discipline  of  the  Dutch  Church  and 
to  the  course  of  inheritances  among  the  Dutch  antenati. 
The  probate  records  disclose  that  not  a  few  of  the  Dutch 
availed  themselves  of  the  privileges  accorded  down  to  a 
late  date  in  the  eighteenth  century. 

By  the  Treaty  of  Westminster,  the  right  of  the  English 
crown  to  the  province  was  again  determined  by  a  distinct 
cession  ;  and  in  order  to  set  at  rest  the  title  of  the  Duke  of 
York,  Charles  II.  in  1674  granted  him  a  new  patent  em- 
bracing the  same  territory  as  before.  The  new  patent  is 
in  almost  the  same  language  as  that  of  1664.  The  crown 
lawyers  professed  to  think  that  such  new  grant  was  neces- 
sary because  the  law  of  postliminy  did  not,  on  account  of 

lx 


GOVERNOR  EDMUND  ANDROS. 


original  defects,  operate  to  restore  the  province  to  the 
former  lord  proprietor.  By  others  the  real  reason  for  the 
re-grant  was  sought  in  the  Duke's  supposed  desire  to 
regain  possession  of  the  land  between  the  Hudson  River 
and  the  Delaware  Bay,  which  he  had  conveyed  to  Lord 
Berkeley  of  Stratton  and  Sir  George  Carteret  in  June, 
1664,  before  the  original  conquest  from  the  Dutch.  But 
as  the  Duke,  after  his  second  patent,  again  granted  the 
territory  then  known  as  East  Jersey  to  Carteret  and  his 
heirs,  with  the  same  rights  and  privileges  as  before, 
a  better  reason  for  the  second  patent  to  the  Duke  of 
York  may  be  found  in  the  original  defects  in  the  King's 
own  title  to  New  Netherland.  When,  in  1674,  the 
Dutch  finally  ceded  the  territory,  the  King  acquired  an 
indisputable  title,  and  the  second  patent  undoubtedly 
conferred  by  the  law  of  England  a  good  estate  on  the 
Duke  of  York,  the  nature  of  which  has  been  already 
considered. 

Major  Edmund  Andros,  the  first  governor  after  the  res- 
toration of  the  province,  was  not  without  experience  in  his 
station,  having  served  with  credit  as  an  officer  in  Barba- 
does.  He  was,  moreover,  acquainted  with  the  Dutch  lan- 
guage. His  commission  was  similar  in  form  to  those  of  cof"  Hist, 
his  predecessors.  By  the  express  instructions  from  the  ^'5Y'' 111 
proprietor  he  was  not  to  molest  the  Dutch  inhabitants 
who  had  participated  in  the  late  overthrow  of  the  English. 
He  was  to  give  all  manner  of  encouragement  to  planters 
of  all  nations,  but  expressly  to  Englishmen,  to  settle  in 
the  province,  providing  them  with  escheated  or  confis- 
cated lands.  Justice  was  to  be  administered  with  all  pos- 
sible equality  without  regard  to  Dutch  or  English  in  their 
private  concerns.  Religious  liberty  was  enjoined.  Such 
laws,  rules,  and  orders  as  were  established  by  the  prede- 

lxi 


LIEUTENANT  ANTHONY  BROCKHOLES. 


cessors  of  Andros,  Colonels  Nicolls  and  Lovelace,  were 
again  to  be  put  into  execution,  and  not  to  be  varied  from 
coh  Hist,  except  upon  emergent  necessity  and  with  the  advice  of  the 
2i8, 226.  '  Governor's  Council.  If  any  such  alteration  was  made,  it  was 
only  "temporary  for  a  year"  ;  and  if  not  confirmed  by  the 
Duke  within  a  year,  was  to  be  void.  The  courts  of  justice 
already  established  were  to  be  continued.  The  limitations 
of  the  patent  to  the  proprietor  and  these  instructions 

Doc.  rel.  .  .       .  . 

coi.  Hist,    formed  the  political  constitution  of  the  province  under 

n.  y.,  in,  *  r 

216.         Andros.     His  first  proclamation  conformed  to  his  111- 

J?°,c\rTel-     structions,  and  reestablished  the  former  courts  erected  by 

Col.  Hist.  '  J 

n.  y.,  in,    Colonel  Nicolls.    The  Duke's  Laws  now  for  the  first  time 

227. 

became  generally  operative,  and  it  was  soon  evident  that 
the  laws  and  the  other  institutions  of  the  conqueror  would 
speedily  displace  those  established  by  the  Dutch.  Before 
indicating  the  nature  of  the  legislation  which  accomplished 
this  change,  it  may  be  well  to  outline  the  events  contribut- 
ing to  the  result,  which  was  no  doubt  materially  aided  by 
the  influx  of  settlers  from  England  and  the  neighboring 
English  colonies.  In  1678,  Governor  Andros  made  to  the 
Privy  Council  a  report  of  the  condition  of  the  province, 
coi? Hist,  which  furnishes  an  authentic  account  of  the  political  con- 
260^'' ll'  stitution.  It  appears  that  the  village  courts,  the  Courts 
of  Sessions,  and  the  General  Court  of  Assizes,  as  regu- 
lated by  the  Duke's  Laws,  were  fully  established  in  the 
province. 

Doc.  rel.  In  the  event  of  the  death  or  absence  of  Andros,  the 

N°Y.,'iri,    Duke  of  York  directed  that  the  government  of  the  prov- 

219,  220, 

283!         ince  should  devolve  on  Lieutenant  Anthony  Brockholes. 

In  1680,  Andros  was  recalled  to  England,  and  at  the 
succeeding  New  Year,  Brockholes  took  charge  of  the 
government.  The  rates  established  by  the  proprietor's 
instructions  for  the  customs-duties  at  the  port  of  New- 

lxii 


REPRESENTATION  DEMANDED. 


York  had  expired  by  express  limitation  in  November, 
1680,  and  Brockholes  found  himself  involved  in  a  dispute 
with  the  merchants,  who  refused  to  pay  any  further  duties. 
The  collector,  Dyer,  who  undertook  to  continue  the  collec- 
tion of  the  imposts,  was  indicted  and  arraigned  before  the 
Court  of  Assizes  on  a  charge  of  high  treason.  Question- 
ing the  jurisdiction  of  the  court,  he  was  shipped  to  Eng- 
land,—  a  spirited  proceeding  which  brought  the  entire 
constitution  of  the  province  to  the  direct  attention  of  the 
law-officers  of  the  crown,  and  did  much  to  establish  the 
government  of  the  province  on  a  different  and  better 
footing.  The  council  of  the  Duke  of  York  in  England 
doubted  the  lord  proprietor's  power  to  impose  customs- 
duties  at  all.  In  the  mean  time  the  inhabitants  of  New- 
York  were  clamoring  for  a  legislative  assembly.  A  grand 
jury  presented  the  want  of  this  body  as  a  grievance,  and 
the  Court  of  Assizes  appointed  the  high  sheriff  of  York- 
shire to  draw  a  petition  to  the  Duke  requesting  general 
assemblies  in  the  province.  The  Duke  of  York,  perceiv- 
ing that  no  revenue  could  be  drawn  from  the  province 
unless  some  concession  was  made,  is  said  to  have  been  at 
a  loss  whether  to  sell  the  province  or  to  follow  the  advice  of 
William  Penn  and  grant  an  assembly.  He  finally  adopted 
the  latter  course,  and  in  a  letter  to  Brockholes  at  New- 
York  announced  his  intention  of  establishing  such  a  form  of 
government  in  New- York  as  should  have  all  the  advan- 
tages and  privileges  enjoyed  by  his  Majesty's  other  plan- 
tations in  America,  "particularly  in  ye  chooseing  of  an 
assembly."  This  promise  was  soon  to  be  kept.  From 
this  incident  the  people  readily  learned  that  written  in- 
structions to  the  governors  were  important  instruments  in 
the  government  of  this  province,  and  so  before  Inde- 
pendence the  nature  and  the  obligations  of  written  con- 

lxiii 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  Ill, 
217,  246. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  Ill, 
289. 


Wood's 
History 
of  Long 
Island,  99. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  Ill, 
317- 


BRITISH  PLANTATIONS. 


stitutions  of  government  became  familiar  to  the  people  of 
all  the  American  colonies. 

The  political  organization  of  the  Province  of  New-York 
did  not  spring  into  being;  it  was,  until  the  reign  of 
William  and  Mary,  of  gradual  development.  The  con- 
stitutions of  all  the  British  plantations  were  at  first  ten- 
tative, or  rather  they  were  a  growth  nurtured  by  the 
law-officers  of  the  crown,  who  were  the  draftsmen  of  the 
various  instruments  delegating  the  powers  of  government 
to  the  colonial  officials.  The  deliberations  of  the  several 
boards  or  councils  in  England  successively  charged  with 
the  administration  of  the  colonies  were  always  guided  by 
those  trained  in  the  principles  of  English  law,  and  we  may 
detect  in  the  action  of  these  bodies  a  reflection  of  the 
contemporary  legal  and  political  notions  of  the  English, 
particularly  the  formalism  of  the  common  law  and  the  ex- 
tent of  the  fluctuating  prerogative  power  then  in  vogue. 
Prior  to  the  accession  of  the  Duke  of  York  to  the  throne, 
his  own  council  and  law-officers  were  consulted  in  the 
affairs  of  this  province,  while  the  general  supervision  and 
management  of  the  other  colonies  were  intrusted  by  royal 
commissions  to  a  standing  council  for  foreign  plantations. 
On  21  December,  1674,  King  Charles  II.  revoked  the  prior 
commission,  and  directed  that  their  books  and  papers  be  de- 
livered to  the  clerk  of  the  Privy  Council.  When  the  Duke 
of  York  ascended  the  throne  as  King  James  II.,  6  Feb- 
ruary, 1685,  the  Province  of  New- York  having  devolved 
on  the  crown,  the  committee  of  the  Privy  Council  managed 
its  affairs,  and  so  continued  to  do  until  the  establishment  of 
the  "  Board  of  Trade,"  15  May,  1696.  But  the  first  Legisla- 
tive Assembly  of  New-York  convened  while  the  province 
was  still  governed  by  the  Duke  of  York  as  lord  proprietor 
under  the  authority  of  the  royal  patents  already  mentioned. 

Ixiv 


GOVERNOR  THOMAS  DONGAN. 


For  the  purpose  of  executing  the  legislative  reform 
which  the  lord  proprietor  had  announced  in  his  letter  to 
Brockholes,  Colonel  Thomas  Dongan  was  commissioned 
Governor  of  New- York  30  September,  1682,  with  authority 
to  perform  and  execute  "all  and  every  the  powers"  granted  cof  m 
to  the  Duke  of  York  by  the  patents  from  King  Charles  II.  f28Y" 
This  gentleman,  who  shared  the  religious  sympathies  of 
his  master,  belonged  to  an  Irish  family  of  distinction,  and 
subsequently  succeeded  to  the  honors  of  the  Earls  of 
Limerick;  he  is  generally  conceded  to  have  been  one  of 
the  ablest  of  the  colonial  governors  of  New- York.  The  coESi 
instructions  to  Colonel  Dongan  directed  him,  with  all  con-  331. 
venient  speed  after  his  arrival,  to  issue  writs  in  the  Duke's 
name  for  the  election  by  the  freeholders  of  the  province 
of  a  general  assembly  to  meet  in  the  city  of  New-York. 
The  representatives  accordingly  elected  met  for  the  first 
time  on  17  October,  1683,  at  Fort  James,  in  the  city  of 
New-York.  This  is  the  first  instance  of  a  representative 
government  in  New-York,  and  its  importance  cannot  be 
overestimated;  for  it  assured  to  the  people  of  New-York 
that  rich  legacy  of  parliamentary  power  and  procedure 
which  was  the  best  product  of  English  civilization.  The 
first  Assembly  at  its  inaugural  session  passed  fifteen  acts, 
the  titles  of  which,  and  the  dates  of  their  approval  by  the 
Governor,  are  given  in  the  "Historical  Introduction  to  the  p.  xii. 
Journal  of  the  Legislative  Council  of  New- York,"  a  treatise 
which  must  necessarily  be  consulted  in  any  comprehen- 
sive examination  of  the  legislation  of  New-York  in  the 
seventeenth  century.  The  laws  of  the  first  session,  after 
their  formal  promulgation  in  front  of  the  City  Hall  in 
New-York,  were  forwarded  to  England  for  the  proprie- 
tor's approval  and  confirmation ;  meanwhile  they  were 
good  and  binding.    In  October,  1684,  at  the  second  ses- 

5  lxv 


ACCESSION  OF  JAMES  II. 


Historical 
Introduction 
to  the  Jour- 
nal of  the 
Legislative 
Council,  I, 
p.  xii. 


Calvin'scase, 
7  Reports, 
12 ;  Skinner, 
603;  Plow- 
den,  212 ; 
Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  Ill, 
359.  36o. 


Blackstone's 
Commen- 
taries, I,  109. 


sion  of  the  first  Assembly,  thirty-one  acts,  or  bills,  received 
the  assent  of  the  Governor.  Vacancies  having  already 
occurred  in  several  of  the  electoral  precincts,  writs  were 
issued  for  new  elections ;  but  before  they  were  executed, 
the  Duke  of  York  succeeded  to  the  throne,  King  Charles  II. 
having  died  on  6  February,  1685.  It  was  now  suggested 
that  the  demise  of  the  crown  dissolved  the  Assembly ;  and 
as  it  was  the  opinion  of  the  Governor's  Council  that  it  was 
expedient  to  dissolve  the  Assembly  by  proclamation,  and 
to  issue  writs  for  a  new  assembly  to  meet  on  the  first  Mon- 
day of  October,  1685,  Governor  Dongan,  on  13  August 
of  that  year,  proclaimed  the  dissolution  of  the  Assembly. 

The  legal  effect  of  the  accession  of  the  Duke  of  York 
to  the  English  throne  was  to  merge  his  estate  in  the  prov- 
ince in  the  crown;  or,  in  legal  parlance,  he  stood  seized 
thereof  in  jure  corona.  The  province  was  no  longer  vested 
in  him  in  his  own  right,  but  in  some  manner  it  was  an- 
nexed to  the  crown ;  '  as  the  franchises,  liberties,  and  ju- 
risdiction thereof,  when  they  came  to  be  in  the  hands  of 
him  that  had  the  crown  and  jurisdiction  royal,  were  ex- 
tinguished by  the  common  law.'  With  the  accession 
of  James,  the  Province  of  New-York  entered  on  a  third 
phase  of  its  political  organization.  Its  government  became 
that  incident  to  the  other  crown  provinces  of  England,  and 
its  constitution  no  longer  depended  on  the  royal  patent  to 
the  Duke  of  York,  but  was  largely  determined  by  that 
branch  of  the  common  law  of  England  relative  to  the 
prerogatives  of  the  crown.  According  to  the  later  English 
jurists,  it  was  now  to  be  denned  as  a  provincial  establish- 
ment, the  constitution  of  which  depended  on  the  respective 
commissions  issued  by  the  crown  to  the  governors,  and 
the  instructions  which  usually  accompanied  the  commis- 
sions.   These  commissions,  and  even  the  instructions  to 

lxvi 


"CHARTER  OF  LIBERTYS." 


the  governors,  were  not,  however,  purely  arbitrary,  but 
were  subject  to  certain  rules  of  law.  It  was  entirely  com- 
petent for  the  crown  to  vest  the  legislative  power  over  a 
crown  province  in  a  legislative  assembly,  and  when  such 
a  grant  was  once  made,  the  better  opinion  was  that  it  could 
not  be  taken  away:  the  inhabitants,  being  enfranchised, 
ought  not  to  be  arbitrarily  disenfranchised.  This  doctrine 
was  especially  true  of  a  province  derived  through  con- 
quest or  cession;  for,  by  the  law  of  England,  the  King 
might  preclude  himself  from  the  exercise  of  his  legislative 
authority  over  a  conquered  or  ceded  country  by  vesting 
the  power  in  the  inhabitants  themselves.  The  first  act, 
the  celebrated  "Charter  of  Liberty s,"  was  passed  by  the 
Assembly  of  1683  with  a  view  of  reaping,  if  possible,  the 
benefit  of  this  principle ;  and  it  contained  a  clause  de- 
signed to  vest  the  legislative  power  in  the  "Governor, 
Councell,  and  representatives  now  in  general  assembly 

Doc  rcl 

mett  and  assembled."    But  the  charter  was  ultimately  dis-  coi.  Hist. 

N  Y  III 

allowed  by  the  new  sovereign,  although  before  his  acces-  357, 370. 
sion  he  had,  as  lord  proprietor,  contemplated  confirming 
it  with  some  amendments  of  his  own,  and  indeed,  as  so 
amended,  had  signed  and  sealed  it  for  transmission.  Before 
it  was  sent  to  New- York,  King  Charles  II.  expired,  and 
the  change  in  the  status  of  the  province  altered  the  deter- 
mination. Whether  the  allowance  by  the  lord  proprie- 
tor would  have  made  a  representative  government  here 
irrevocable,  was  consequently  never  determined. 

In  August,  1685,  Dongan,  of  his  own  motion,  again 
issued  writs  of  election,  but  this  time  in  the  name  of 
King  James  II.,  for  an  assembly  to  be  held  at  the  city  of 
New- York  on  20  October,  1685.  The  assembly  thus 
elected  passed  six  acts  of  minor  importance  which  received 
the  assent  of  the  Governor.    It  then  adjourned  to  25  Sep- 

lxvii 


DONGAN  ASSEMBLIES. 


tember,  1686;  but  before  that  date  it  was  further  pro- 
rogued by  proclamation  until  25  March,  1686-87.  Before 
the  time  appointed  for  the  meeting,  the  King  issued  a  new 
commission  and  instructions  to  the  Governor,  which  de- 
prived the  people  of  all  share  in  the  legislative  power ;  and 
on  20  January,  1686-87,  Dongan  proclaimed  the  assembly 
dissolved.  The  acts  of  the  "Dongan  Assemblies,"  as  they 
are  called,  have  never  yet  been  printed,  although  they  throw 
considerable  light  on  the  introduction  in  the  province  of 
various  institutes  of  the  English  law.  The  original  bills 
assented  to  by  Governor  Dongan  were  long  kept  in  the 
office  of  the  secretary  of  the  province,  and  are  now  in  the 
State  Library  at  Albany.  At  the  present  time  a  Statutory 
c.  125        Revision  Committee,  appointed  under  an  act  of  the  State 

N.Y.  Laws  rr 

of  1891.  legislature,  enacted  2  April,  1891,  is  understood  to  be  en- 
gaged in  the  work  of  preparing  them  for  publication.1  If 
their  labor  shall  be  consummated,  these  ancient  laws  will 
then  be  printed  for  the  first  time  more  than  two  centuries 
after  their  enactment — a  somewhat  tardy  acknowledgment 
of  the  importance  attached  to  them  by  the  bar  both  of  the 
province  and  of  the  State;  for  the  beginning  of  the  legisla- 
tion of  a  great  commonwealth,  as  it  affords  the  basis  of  the 
later  jurisprudence,  cannot  be  without  interest  to  either  the 
student  of  institutions  or  the  professional  legislator. 

The  demise  of  the  crown  occasioned  by  the  death  of 


1  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  this  commission 
will  faithfully  complete  the  task  of  the  late 
Dr.  George  H.  Moore,  who  patiently  in- 
vestigated the  condition  of  the  early  laws 
of  New-York,  although  he  never  received 
sufficient  encouragement  to  enable  him  to 
publish  any  of  the  results  of  his  self-imposed 
task.  He  had  proposed  to  embrace  in  his 
first  volume  the  "Statutes  at  Large  of  New- 
York  from  1664  to  1 69 1,"  and  in  the  sub- 
sequent volumes  to  supply  some  fourteen 


hundred  laws  remaining  unprinted,  but 
regularly  passed  by  the  Assembly  between 
the  years  1691  and  1775.  Prior  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  printing-press  in  the  province 
under  a  license  from  the  executive  in  1693, 
the  acts  of  Assembly  were  usually  enrolled 
in  the  office  of  the  provincial  secretary,  and 
copies  of  them  were  sent  to  the  offices  of  the 
various  county  clerks  and  recorded  so  as  to 
give  them  publicity. 


lxviii 


CONSOLIDATION. 


King  Charles  II.  caused  a  new  and  fuller  commission  to   doc.  rei. 
be  issued  to  Governor  Dongan  under  the  sign  manual   n.  y.,  ni, 

377- 

of  King  James  II.;  it  was  accompanied  by  the  usual  set 
of  instructions.    These  instruments,  expressing  the  royal  coi'iSt. 
prerogative,  essentially  altered  the  late  exercise  of  the         " ' 
legislative  power  over  the  province,  vesting  it  wholly  in 
the  Governor  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  his  Council, 
but  with  the  customary  proviso  that  the  laws  and  ordi- 
nances thus  enacted  were  to  be,  as  near  as  conveniently 
might  be,  agreeable  to  the  laws  and  statutes  of  England. 
Consequently,  between  December,  1686,  and  May,  1688, 
the  few  laws  promulgated  were  enacted  wholly  by  the  Gov- 
ernor and  Council.    The  assembly  had  ceased  to  exist,  but 
the  laws,  statutes,  and  ordinances  previously  enacted  by  it 
were  continued  in  full  force  by  the  express  direction  of  JJf"^ 
the  King.  N°Y.,m, 

o  370. 

In  the  year  1688  an  attempt  to  consolidate  the  govern- 
ment of  the  northern  colonies  was  made  by  James  II. ; 
and  Sir  Edmund  Andros,  formerly  the  Governor  of  New- 
York,  was  made  Captain-General  over  the  united  colo- 
nies of  Massachusetts  Bay,  New  Plymouth,  Connecticut, 

Doc  rcl 

and  Rhode  Island,  as  well  as  over  the  provinces  of  Maine,   col.  Hist 

N.  Y  ,  III, 

New  Hampshire,  New- York,  and  East  and  West  Jersey.   537.  "' 
The  legislative  power  over  the  new  dominion  was  vested 
in  the  Governor-in-chief  by  and  with  the  consent  of  the 
major  part  of  his  Council.    Dongan  was  recalled  from 
New- York  and  directed  to  resign  his  government  to  Sir  coLiSt. 

N  Y  III, 

Edmund  Andros.    The  last  law  enacted  in  New- York  by   55o.  '■ 

Governor  Dongan  and  the  Council  was  assented  to  on 

2  August,  1688.    The  annexation  to  New  England  proved 

extremely  unpopular  in  New-York,  according  to  the  mani-  gJ-^J- 

festations  of  even  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  Nicholson,  n.y.,hi, 

576. 

who  was  left  in  charge  of  this  province;  and  the  Revo- 

5*  lxix 


ENGLISH  REVOLUTION. 


lution,  with  the  flight  of  James  II.,  put  a  speedy  end  to 
the  confederation :  the  separate  territorial  governments  of 
America  were  already  too  firmly  established  to  be  readily 
overthrown  by  edicts  of  the  house  of  Stuart,  even  though 
this  policy  was  for  a  time  after  the  Revolution  approved 
by  William  III. 

The  Convention  Parliament  having  resolved  by  the 
Declaration  of  Rights  that  William  and  Mary,  Prince  and 
Princess  of  Orange,  should  be  declared  King  and  Queen 
of  England  during  their  joint  lives,  but  with  the  adminis- 
trative power  in  the  King,  and  having  likewise  settled  the 
crown  on  the  posterity  of  Mary,  and  then  on  that  of  Anne, 
Douglass's    New- York  with  the  other  crown  plantations  passed  to  the 

British  „  .  e 

settle-  new  sovereigns.  Crown  provinces,  as  concomitantia  01 
382"  Doc.    the  crown,  pursued  the  line  of  devolution  prescribed  for 

Hist.N.Y., 

1,377,380.  the  crown.  The  legal  effect  of  the  English  Revolution 
was  analogous  to  the  demise  of  the  crown;  its  preroga- 
tives remained  as  before,  but  the  right  of  the  new  sover- 
eigns to  exercise  them  was  deduced  from  the  convention 
of  1688.  The  Revolution,  so  peacefully  effected  in  Eng- 
land, was  the  occasion  of  disorder  in  New-York.  Jacob 
Leisler,  a  captain  of  one  of  the  train-bands,  taking  advan- 
tage of  the  official  delay  in  proclaiming  the  new  sover- 
eigns, usurped  the  government  in  their  name  and  in 
the  Protestant  interest,  notwithstanding  that  on  19  Feb- 
Doc.  rei.  ruary,  1688-89,  by  an  order  of  the  Privy  Council  in  Eng- 
n°y.Hiii,  land,  all  the  Protestant  officials  commissioned  by  James 
572,596,  11  Were  regularly  continued  in  office.  On  20  February, 
1690,  Leisler,  apparently  ignorant  of  the  disallowance  of 
the  "Charter  of  Libertys"  of  1683,  issued  writs  under  it 
to  the  several  counties  for  the  election  of  an  assembly, 
which  accordingly  met  at  the  city  of  New- York  on  24 
April,  1690.    Every  county  except  Suffolk  chose  repre- 

lxx 


GOVERNOR  HENRY  SLOUGHTER. 


sentatives.  This  irregular  body  held  two  sessions,  one 
in  April  and  the  other  in  October,  and  passed  several  acts 
which  now  figure  in  the  legislation  of  the  province  as  his- 
torical curiosities  only,  their  illegality  being  generally  al- 
lowed. Upon  the  arrival  of  Governor  Sloughter,  bearing 
a  commission  from  William  and  Mary,  Leisler,  with  his 
son-in-law,  was  tried  for  high  treason,  convicted,  and  exe- 
cuted. The  attainder  of  blood  then  incident  to  a  convic- 
tion for  treason  was  subsequently  reversed  by  act  of  the 
English  parliament,  upon  proceedings  instituted  to  that 
end  by  Leisler's  son,  and  several  other  persons. 

The  beginning  of  the  reign  of  William  and  Mary  saw 
the  government  of  the  Province  of  New- York  placed  on 
a  permanent  footing.  The  royal  commission  issued  to 
Governor  Henry  Sloughter,  dated  4  January,  1690,  con- 
tained a  distinct  grant  of  a  legislative  assembly.  This 
grant  could  neither  be  retracted  nor  annulled;  it  was,  by 
the  limitation  on  the  crown  itself,  permanent.  At  last  repre- 
sentative government  was  established  in  New-York.  The 
Governor,  with  the  consent  of  the  Council  and  the  As- 
sembly, or  the  major  part  of  them,  was  invested  with  full 
power  and  authority  to  make,  constitute,  and  ordain  laws, 
statutes,  and  ordinances  for  the  good  government  of  the 
province.  But  such  laws  were  to  be,  as  near  as  might  be, 
agreeable  to  the  laws  and  statutes  of  the  kingdom  of  Eng- 
land. The  laws  so  enacted  were  to  be  transmitted  to 
England  under  the  seal  of  New- York  within  three  months, 
or  sooner,  after  their  passage,  in  order  that  they  might 
receive  the  sovereign's  approbation  or  disallowance.  In 
case  any  of  them  were  disallowed  under  the  royal  sign 
manual,  or  by  order  of  the  Privy  Council,  then  they  were 
to  cease  and  be  of  none  effect.  Until  disallowed,  the  acts 
of  the  Assembly  were  what  were  called  temporary,  or 

lxxi 


Doc.  Hist. 
N.Y.,11, 
355,  356 


6-7  Wil- 
liam III., 
anno  1695 ; 
Doc.  Hist. 
N.Y.,11, 
435- 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  Ill, 
623. 

Chitty's 
Preroga- 
tives, 33. 


PARLIAMENT. 


Cf.  7  and  8 

W.  III,C.  22. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.Y.,III, 
687. 


Pownall's 
Adminis- 
tration 
of  the 
Colonies, 
London, 
anno  1764, 
passim. 


probationary;  but  were  presumptively  in  force  within  the 
province.  As  these  probationary  acts  were  subject  to  be 
called  in  question  because  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  Eng- 
land, the  theory  of  the  subordination  of  the  Assembly  to 
the  paramount  constitution  of  the  province  was  inculcated 
in  the  people  of  New -York  long  before  the  establish- 
ment of  their  independence  of  the  crown.  The  commission, 
however,  reserved  to  the  Governor  the  power  to  erect,  with 
the  advice  of  the  Council,  courts  of  judicature  in  the  prov- 
ince; but  Colonel  Sloughter's  instructions  negatived  this 
grant,  and  directed  him  not  to  establish  any  courts  not 
before  established  without  special  order  from  the  King. 
Thus,  in  full  conformity  with  the  law  of  England  regu- 
lating the  prerogatives  of  the  crown,  the  legislative  power 
over  New -York  was  ceded  by  the  crown. 

The  autonomy  of  New- York  was  not  yet  complete;  it 
was  subject  to  certain  powers  of  paramount  legislation 
over  all  the  English  plantations  claimed  by  the  parliament 
of  England.  The  extent  of  these  latter  powers,  fluctuating 
and  always  a  matter  of  contention,  was  necessarily  a  po- 
litical question,  and  subject  to  no  restrictions  of  positive 
law.  The  ultimate  submission  of  this  contention  to  the 
arbitrament  of  force  was,  in  the  logic  of  events,  therefore 
inevitable.  In  the  later  political  history  of  the  colonies,  had 
the  English  authorities  heeded  the  views  of  an  interesting 
figure  in  American  politics, —  Governor  Thomas  Pownall, 
who  may  well  be  termed  the  first  American  statesman, — 
the  final  conflict  between  the  territorial  and  the  imperial 
legislatures  might  have  been  indefinitely  postponed,  if  not 
peaceably  solved,  upon  rational  plans  consistent  with  auton- 
omy on  the  basis  of  a  common  kingship  and  independent 
legislatures.  Although  the  legislative  power  in  New- York 
was  subject  to  an  undefined  limitation,  the  operation  of 

lxxii 


NEW  CONSTITUTION. 


the  acts  of  the  Assembly  of  New- York  within  its  own 
proper  jurisdiction  was  as  absolute  as  the  acts  of  the  par- 
liament of  England.  Yet,  unlike  parliament,  the  Assembly 
of  a  crown  province  was  regulated  by  the  crown  and  the 
English  common  law.  It  owed  its  energy  to  the  crown, 
and  had  no  title  to  the  prescriptive  and  independent  ju- 
risdiction of  parliament,  which  was  omnipotent  and  regu- 
lated by  the  "  lex  et  consuetudo parliamenti"  only.  Yet  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Assembly  of  a  crown  province  was  quite 
different  from  that  of  an  assembly  in  a  proprietary  govern- 
ment, the  laws  of  which  have  been  properly  likened  to  the 
by-laws  of  a  corporation  for  municipal  or  private  purposes. 

In  so  far  as  New- York  was  concerned,  the  government 
constituted  by  the  commission  and  instructions  to  Gov- 
ernor Sloughter  reflected  the  extent  of  the  English  Revo- 
lution. The  new  constitution  of  the  province  contained 
distinctly  less  of  the  personal  will  of  the  sovereign  and 
more  of  those  principles  which  were  embodied  in  the  now 
reformed  public  law  of  England.  Unfortunately,  this  im- 
provement ceased  here  with  the  erection  of  a  permanent 
Legislative  Assembly.  The  historical  precedents  made  it 
extremely  difficult  for  the  crown  lawyers  of  that  day  to 
apply  the  principles  of  the  English  Revolution  in  their  full 
extent  to  the  crown  colonies.  They  soon  began  to  have 
one  law  for  the  King's  prerogative  over  the  crown  colo- 
nies and  another  for  the  King's  prerogative  when  exer- 
cised in  England;  so  that  concurrently  with  the  rise  of 
liberty  in  England  may  be  said  to  have  begun  a  legal  pro- 
cess of  distinguishing  the  personal  status  of  those  subjects 
of  the  crown  who  resided  in  the  colonies  from  that  of  those 
subjects  resident  in  England.  In  the  time  of  the  Stuarts, 
the  strictly  feudal  conceptions  of  the  prerogative  enter- 
tained by  the  kings  of  that  dynasty  at  least  prevented  any 

lxxiii 


NATURE  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT. 


such  distinction :  the  King  was  the  head  of  all  his  people, 
and  the  fountain  of  justice  in  all  his  dominions.  Therefore, 
under  the  Stuarts  the  colonists  shared  only  the  general 
disadvantages  of  the  King's  subjects  everywhere.  The 
difference  indicated  as  observable  after  the  Revolution  in 
the  status  of  the  King's  subjects  in  the  colonies  and  at 
home  is  in  part  then  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  the 
government  of  crown  provinces  was  assumed  to  be  of 
feudal  origin,  and  this  theory  was  not  permitted  to  be  af- 
fected by  the  Revolution  in  question.  In  the  minds  of  the 
crown  lawyers,  the  King  remained  paramount  here  when 
he  had  ceased  to  be  paramount  in  England.  This  dis- 
tinction is  pertinent  to  our  subject  only  in  so  far  as  it  is 
explanatory  of  the  nature  of  the  task  which  devolved  upon 
the  permanent  Legislative  Assembly  established  in  New- 
York  under  William  and  Mary,  the  first  of  whose  laws  are 
contained  in  this  volume.  This  body  always  insisted  that 
the  logic  of  the  grant  entitled  it  to  maintain  those  princi- 
ples of  public  law  which  were  illustrated  and  enforced  in 
England  by  parliament.  Consequently  the  whole  period 
between  1691  and  the  War  of  Independence  is  a  record  of 
one  long  struggle  between  the  Assembly  of  New-York 
and  the  various  law-making  and  law-directing  bodies  in 
England.  The  laws  of  New- York  now  reproduced  in  this 
volume  are  therefore  replete  with  interest  not  only  because 
they  serve  to  remind  the  reader  of  the  introduction  of  print- 
ing in  New- York,  or  the  foundation  of  one  phase  of  repre- 
sentative government,  but  because  they  mark  one  of  the 
beginnings  of  that  struggle  which  led  ultimately  to  our 
independence  of  all  external  dictation  and  government. 

The  final  grant  of  a  share  in  the  government  to  the  free- 
holders of  the  Province  of  New-York  made  the  nature  of 
the  government  in  the  province  substantially  as  follows: 

lxxiv 


THE  GOVERNOR  OF  THE  PROVINCE. 


The  immediate  representative  of  the  crown  was  the  Gov- 
ernor, who,  by  virtue  of  his  office  and  commission,  was 
captain-general  of  the  military  forces  in  New- York.  He 
was  one  of  the  constituent  parts  of  the  General  Assembly, 
having  power  to  veto  all  the  laws  of  that  body.  He  had 
the  custody  of  the  great  seal  of  the  province,  and  was  ex- 
officio  chancellor  within  his  government.  He  possessed 
also  an  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  as  ordinary,  and  could 
collate  to  all  benefices  within  the  province.  With  the 
consent  of  the  executive  council,  he  might  erect  courts  of 
judicature,  and  by  himself  appoint  the  judiciary  and  the 
other  officers  of  government.  He  presided  in  the  Court 
of  Errors  of  the  province,  consisting  of  the  Governor  and 
Council ;  and  he  was  vice-admiral,  and  could  erect  courts 
of  admiralty  within  his  government.  The  executive  had 
also  a  certain  undefined  power  of  legislating  by  ordinance, 
or  proclamation,  the  extent  of  which  was  vague,  and  its  See  note 
origin  and  validity  a  matter  of  considerable  dispute  among  fn/J6' 
those  who  concerned  themselves  about  the  constitutional 
law  of  the  province.  The  Legislative  Assembly  was  now, 
however,  the  regularly  constituted  law-making  body  in 
the  province.  In  imitation  of  the  parliament  of  England, 
it  was  a  bicameral  institution,  the  upper  house  consisting 
of  the  members  of  the  Governor's  Council,  twelve  in  num- 
ber, who  were  all  freeholders  and  principal  inhabitants  of 
the  province,  designated  in  this  instance  by  the  King.  coL*Hist. 

N  Y  III 

The  lower  house  consisted  of  the  representatives  elected  685. " 
by  the  freeholders  of  the  province,  pursuant  to  writs  of 
election  issued  in  the  name  of  the  sovereign,  signed  with 
the  great  seal  of  the  province,  and  attested  by  the  Gov- 
ernor. Prior  to  the  year  1736,  it  was  the  practice  of  the 
Governor  of  New- York  to  preside  over  the  Council  when 
it  convened  as  the  upper  house  of  the  legislature,  and  to 

Ixxv 


ASSEMBLY  OF  1 69 1. 


Journal 
of  the 
Legislative 
Council 
of  N.  Y.,  I, 
p.  xxvi. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col  Hist. 
N.Y.,  III, 
624. 


give  the  casting  vote  when  he  pleased.  But  this  practice 
had  no  place  in  the  constitution  of  the  province:  it  was  an 
irregularity  condemned  by  the.  law-officers  of  the  crown 
when  occasion  brought  it  to  the  notice  of  the  Lords  of 
Trade  in  England.  Under  the  royal  commission  and 
the  instructions  to  Governor  Sloughter,  the  legislature  was 
intended  to  consist  of  three  branches  —  the  Governor,  the 
Legislative  Council,  and  the  Assembly;  but  in  practice 
prior  to  1736,  this  canon  of  the  constitution  was  violated. 
Yet,  as  the  irregularity  was  an  usurpation  generally  ac- 
quiesced in,  it  was  never  held  to  vitiate  the  legislation  of 
the  period.  The  Assembly  might  be  adjourned,  prorogued, 
or  dissolved  by  the  Governor. 

Governor  Sloughter  arrived  in  New-York  on  19  March, 
1 69 1,  and  on  the  day  following  the  writs  for  the  election 
of  deputies  to  the  Assembly  were  issued  in  conformity  to 
his  commission  and  instructions.  Pursuant  to  the  writs, 
the  Assembly  convened  on  9  April,  1691,  at  the  city  of 
New- York.  Part  of  the  laws  contained  in  the  volume  to 
which  these  chapters  are  merely  introductory,  were  passed 
by  the  Assembly  thus  convened ;  while  the  residue  were 
enacted  by  the  succeeding  assemblies  elected  prior  to  1694. 
When  fully  organized,  the  members  of  the  Council  com- 
posing the  upper  legislative  house  during  the  first  session 
of  the  legislature  were  Joseph  Dudley  (soon  to  be  made 
chief  justice  of  the  province),  Frederick  Philipse,  Stephanus 
Van  Cortlandt,  Nicholas  Bayard,  William  Smith,  Thomas 
Willet,  Gabriel  Monviele,  Chidley  Brooke,  and  William 
Nicolls.  To  the  lower  house  the  sheriffs  returned  as  the 
elected  representatives  for  the  city  and  county  of  New- 
York,  James  Graham,  William  Merrett,  Jacobus  Van 
Cortlandt,  and  Johannis  Kipp;  for  the  city  and  county  of 
Albany,  Dirck  Wessells  and  Levinus  Van  Schaick;  for  the 


lxxvi 


PERSONNEL  OF  THE  ASSEMBLY. 


county  of  Richmond,  Elias  Duksbury  and  John  Dally;  for 
Westchester  County,  John  Pell;  for  Suffolk  County,  Henry 
Pierson  and  Matthew  Howell;  for  Queens  County,  John 
Bound  (or  Bowne)  and  Nathaniel  Pearsall;  for  Kings 
County,  Nicholas  Stillwell  and  John  Poland;  and  for  the 
counties  of  Ulster  and  Duchess,  Henry  Beekman  and 
Thomas  Garton.  These  counties  had  all  been  erected  by 
an  act  of  the  first  "Dongan  Assembly,"  approved  i  No- 
vember, 1683.  It  will  be  observed  that  the  lower  house 
in  1 69 1  consisted  of  thirteen  Englishmen,  and  four  who 
may  be  accounted  Dutchmen;  in  the  upper  house,  a  ma- 
jority were  Englishmen :  the  process  of  Anglicizing  the 
province  was  evidently  very  rapid.  As  soon  as  the  As- 
sembly convened,  the  Council  ordered  that  a  warrant  issue 
to  the  sheriff  of  Albany  County  to  elect  a  burgess  for  the 
manor  of  Rensselaerswyck ;  and  Kiliaen  van  Rensselaer 
was  added  to  the  lower  house.  James  Graham,  who  had 
been  attorney-general  of  the  province,  was  elected  speaker. 
The  representatives  from  Queens  County,  John  Bowne 
and  Nathaniel  Pearsall,  who  were  of  the  Quaker  persua- 
sion, refused  to  take  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and  supremacy 
designated  by  the  act  of  parliament,  although  they  were 
willing  to  sign  the  test;  a  warrant  was  accordingly  issued 
to  the  sheriff  of  Queens  County  for  a  new  election  of  depu- 
ties in  their  stead.  So  stood  the  personnel  of  the  house 
at  the  first  session  in  the  year  1691.  The  sessions  of  the 
Council,  composing  the  upper  house,  were  held  at  the  Fort, 
the  executive  residence  in  the  city  of  New- York;  while  the 
representatives,  for  want  of  better  accommodation,  sat  in 
the  old  "Stadt  Huys,"  or  City  Hall,  during  the  entire  time 
embraced  in  the  accompanying  volume  of  laws. 

Reserving  for  the  succeeding  chapter  the  commentary 
on  the  laws  enacted  by  this  legislature  and  embodied  in 

Ixxvii 


RESOLUTION  OF  1 69 1. 


this  volume,  the  reader's  attention  should  now  be  directed 
to  a  singular  resolution  of  the  representatives  who  had 
convened  in  the  city  of  New- York  on  9  April,  1691  ; 
for  it  has  perplexed  the  lawyers  of  New-York  for  many 
generations,  and  has  given  rise  to  interesting  problems  in 
jurisprudence.  If  legal  effect  be  given  to  this  resolution, 
all  the  statute  law  of  New-York  enacted  anterior  to  the 
year  1691  was  consigned  to  oblivion  long  before  its  ex- 
press repeal ;  and  the  statute  law  of  New-York  may  then 
be  said  to  begin  with  the  laws  embraced  in  this  present 
volume.  The  entire  basis  of  the  jurisprudence  of  New- 
York  is  therefore  to  some  degree  affected  by  the  resolu- 
tion in  question,  which  appears  only  in  the  journal  of  the 
lower  house.    The  resolution  is  in  these  words : 

"  Upon  an  Information  brought  into  this  House,  by  sev- 
eral Members  of  the  House,  declaring,  That  the  several 
Laws  made  formerly  by  the  General-Assembly,  and  his 
late  Royal  Highness  James  Duke  of  York,  &c.  And  also 
the  several  Ordinances,  or  reputed  Laws,  made  by  the 
preceding  Governors  and  Councils,  for  the  Rule  of  their 
Majesties  Subjects  within  this  Province,  are  reported 
amongst  the  People,  to  be  still  in  Force : 

"Resolved,  Nemine  Contradicente,  That  all  the  Laws  con- 
sented to  by  the  General  Assembly,  under  James,  Duke  of 
York,  and  the  Liberties  and  Privileges  therein  contained, 
granted  to  the  People,  and  declared  to  be  their  Rights,  not 
being  observed,  and  not  ratified  and  approved  by  his  Royal 
Highness,  nor  the  late  King,  are  null,  void,  and  of  none  Ef- 
fect. And  also  the  several  Ordinances  made  by  the  late 
journal  of      Governors  and  Councils,  being'  contrary  to  the  constitution 

the  New-  ,     0  J 

York  As-      of  England,  and  the  Practice  of  the  Government  of  their 

sembly,  24 

April,  1691.     Majesties  other  Plantations  in  America,  are  likewise  null, 
void,  and  of  none  Effect  nor  Force  within  this  Province." 


lxxviii 


EFFECT  OF  THE  RESOLUTION. 


The  journal  of  the  Legislative  Council  discloses  that  this 
resolution  was  never  presented  to  that  body  or  acquiesced 
in  by  them.  It  stands  on  the  minutes  of  the  proceedings 
of  the  lower  house,  as  if  it  were  intended  to  be  only  a  dec- 
laration or  opinion  of  the  house  on  a  matter  of  law.  Un- 
fortunately, the  journal  of  the  Assembly  is  not  complete. 
The  minutes  of  the  sessions  beginning  April  20th  and  end- 
ing 29  April,  1692,  are,  with  others  of  a  later  period,  miss- 
ing. Since  the  establishment  of  our  independence  of  the 
crown,  the  courts  of  New- York  have  from  time  to  time 
considered  the  legal  effect  of  this  resolution  ;  but  in  no 
instance  have  the  arguments  of  counsel  been  either  very 
full  or  the  case  exhaustively  presented.  In  the  recent  con- 
test in  England  concerning  the  succession  to  the  Lau- 
derdale peerage,  various  American  and  English  counsel 
attempted  to  have  the  legal  effect  of  this  resolution  on  the 
Duke's  Laws  and  the  acts  of  the  "Dongan  Assemblies" 
decided  by  an  English  tribunal ;  but  that  contest  ulti- 
mately turned  on  a  technical  point  of  evidence,  and  the 
effect  of  the  resolution  was  not  therefore  decided.  In  the 
course  of  the  hearing  in  the  House  of  Lords,  there  was, 
however,  an  indistinct  intimation  that  the  resolution  of 
the  Assembly  alone  could  not,  under  the  principles  of 
English  law,  be  operative  to  repeal  the  statutes  regularly 
passed  under  the  authority  of  the  Duke  of  York  and  by 
the  so-called  "Dongan  Assemblies."  This  intimation  ob- 
viously accorded  with  the  views,  in  the  last  century,  of  the 
Colonial  Office  in  England,  in  so  far  as  we  may  judge  from 
the  following  incident:  On  9  July,  1768,  the  colonial  secre- 
tary, Lord  Hillsborough,  requested  the  Governor  of  New- 
York  to  procure  a  printed  collection  of  the  Duke  of  York's 
Laws,  stating  that  a  manuscript  copy  was  then  in  the  office 
of  the  Lords  of  Trade.    As  this  was  some  seventy-seven 

lxxix 


The 

Lauderdale 
Peerage, 
17  Abbott's 
N.  C,  439; 
L.  R.,  10 
Appeal 
Cases,  692. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  VIII, 


CONFLICT  OF  OPINION  IN  NEW-YORK. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  IV, 
1 154. 


History 
of  the 
Province  of 
New-York, 
London, 
anno  1757, 
P-  73- 


History  of 
New-York, 
edition  of 
1829,1,101. 


years  after  the  Assembly's  resolution  of  1691,  it  is  perhaps 
fair  to  assume  that  the  resolution  itself  was  not  deemed 
conclusive  by  the  colonial  authorities  in  England.  At  all 
events,  Lord  Hillsborough's  request  must  have  been  pred- 
icated of  an  official  consideration  of  the  Duke's  Laws 
as  late  as  the  year  1768.  Long  prior  to  1768,  but  some 
years  subsequent  to  1691,  Lord  Cornbury,  when  Gover- 
nor here,  refers  to  the  Duke's  Laws  as  if  they  were  still 
recognized  in  the  province. 

The  conflict  of  opinion  in  New- York  on  the  legal  effect 
of  the  resolution  in  question  is  not  confined  to  the  present 
century.  Early  in  the  preceding  century,  William  Smith, 
the  well-known  historian  of  this  province,  and  a  lawyer  of 
prominence,  stated  that  "all  laws  made  here  antecedent  to" 
1 69 1  "are  disregarded  both  by  the  Legislature  and  the 
Courts  of  Law."  Years  subsequent,  when  a  refugee  in  Can- 
ada, Judge  Smith  interpolated  an  amendment  in  his  his- 
tory, by  which  he  ascribed  the  Assembly's  motive  for  the 
resolution  to  a  desire  on  their  part  to  avoid  giving  effect 
to  an  act  passed  under  James,  because  it  gave  a  perma- 
nent revenue  to  the  crown.  However  accurate  this  after- 
thought of  the  historian  may  be,  it  has  been  doubted 
whether  a  single  chamber  of  a  bicameral  legislature  pos- 
sessed the  power  to  repeal,  by  its  mere  resolution,  all  the 
laws  regularly  enacted  under  the  patent  of  King  Charles  II. 
and  under  his  successor  James  II.  Such  a  power  of  repeal 
could  not  be  inferred  from  the  constitution  then  in  force,  or 
from  any  principle  of  the  law  of  England  which  was  bind- 
ing on  the  Privy  Council  when  it  exercised  its  supreme 
appellate  jurisdiction  over  the  province.  To  render  such  a 
resolution  effective  as  a  repeal,  it  should  appear  to  have 
been  concurred  in  by  the  upper  house  and  approved  by 
the  Governor  of  the  province :  this  it  was  not.    Yet  more 

lxxx 


MODERN  VIEW  OF  THE  RESOLUTION. 


finality  might  be  attributed  to  the  opinion  of  the  historian 
were  his  statement  uniformly  acquiesced  in  by  his  contem- 
poraries. The  weight  of  their  opinion  seems,  however, 
the  other  way,  and  undoubtedly  coincided  with  the  consti- 
tution then  in  force.  For  example,  Lieutenant-Governor 
Colden,  a  most  competent  authority,  soon  after  the  appear- 
ance of  Smith's  history,  distinctly  challenged  this  state- 
ment by  the  historian.  He  properly  remarks  that  the  acts 
of  parliament  during  the  reign  of  King  James  II.  remained 
in  force  after  the  King's  flight  and  deposition  ;  and  inquires 
on  what  principle  the  acts  of  the  New- York  Assembly 
passed  before  the  English  Revolution  could  be  summarily 
disregarded  because  of  a  mere  resolution  by  the  later  As- 
sembly? This  query  is  difficult  to  answer.  So,  Lewis 
Morris,  long  a  chief  justice  of  the  province,  in  the  course 
of  the  proceedings  which  arose  out  of  the  celebrated  case 
of  Cosby  v.  Van  Dam  (anno  1733-34),  strongly  entertained 
the  opposite  opinion.  Coming  down  to  this  century,  we 
find  Smith's  statement  combated  by  such  learned  lawyers 
in  the  State  as  the  Honorable  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  one  of 
the  revisers  of  the  Statutes  of  New-York,  and  by  Judge 
Murray  Hoffman,  a  close  student  of  the  early  institutions 
of  New-York.1  The  view  of  the  dissident  authorities  is 
somewhat  aided  by  the  action  of  the  Assembly  itself ;  for  it 
is  to  be  observed  that  on  several  occasions  after  the  year 
1 69 1,  bills  to  repeal  all  the  acts  passed  in  New- York  prior 
to  the  "Happy  Revolution"  were  regularly  introduced  in 
the  house,  though  never  passed  by  it.  The  Assembly 
evidently  doubted  the  finality  of  the  resolution  in  1691. 

Since  the  establishment  of  the  State  government,  the 
trend  of  judicial  opinion  has  been  rather  in  favor  of  Justice 


Chalmers's 
Political 
Annals  of 
the  Colonies 
S85. 

Colden's 
Letters  on 
Smith's 
History, 
N.Y.  Hist. 
Society's 
Collections 
for  1868, 
p.  191. 


Draft  Peti- 
tion in  Behalf 
of  the  Inhab- 
itants of 
New-York, 
Historical 
Magazine, 
(2d  series), 
1,69,75  ;  see 
also  Morris's 
opinion  in 
the  case  of 
Cosby  v. 
Van  Dam ; 
Pamphlets, 
in  N.  Y. 
Hist.  Soc. 
Lib. ,  and  in 
the  State 
Library  at 
Albany, 
N.Y. 


Assembly 
Journal,  I, 
824. 


Hoffman's 
Treatise 
upon  the 
Practice  of 
the  Court 
of  Chancery, 
1,17. 


1  Butler's  "Outline  of  the  Constitutional  History  of  New-York,"  41;  Hoffman's 
"Treatise  upon  the  Practice  of  the  Court  of  Chancery,"  I,  15. 

6  lxxxi 


EXAMINATION  OF  THE  RESOLUTION. 


Jackson 

ex  dent. 
Woodruff  v. 
Gilchrist,  15 
Johnson's 
Reports, 
89 ;  Con- 
stantine  v. 
VanWinkle, 
6  Hill,  177, 
181. 

Humbert 
v.  Trinity 
Church,  24 
Wendell, 
587,  625; 
VanWinkle 
v.  Constan- 
tine,  10 
N.Y., 
422,  426; 
but  see 
Brookhaven 
v.  Strong, 
60  N.  Y.,68. 


Hon. 
George 
Hoadly,  in 
MS.  anno- 
tations on 
the  Reso- 
lution. 


Stockdale 
v.  Hansard, 
9  Adolphus 
and  Ellis, 
107,  108, 
139- 


Smith's  view,  that  the  laws  enacted  in  the  Province  of 
New-York  prior  to  the  English  Revolution  were  not  in 
force  after  the  year  1691.  Whether  this  inclination  is 
based  on  accurate  statements  of  fact  or  on  a  sufficiently 
critical  examination  of  the  archives  of  the  provincial  period 
of  our  government,  has  been  considered  doubtful.  After 
this  lapse  of  time  the  courts  of  the  State  are  obviously 
unwilling  to  disturb  their  earlier  conceptions,  and  they 
would  seem  to  prefer  to  apply  the  maxim,  "  Communis  error 
facitjus"  rather  than  to  revise  their  early  conclusion.  In 
the  contest  connected  with  the  Lauderdale  peerage,  the 
opinion  of  the  State  courts  was  not,  however,  binding  on 
the  House  of  Lords,  although  its  Committee  for  Privi- 
leges naturally  attached  great  importance  to  the  opinions 
of  the  high  tribunals  of  the  State  of  New-York.  There  is, 
no  doubt,  much  force  in  the  suggestion  that  a  solemn 
declaration  of  the  lower  house  of  Assembly  to  the  effect 
that  a  great  political  event  entailed  certain  consequences 
on  the  laws  of  this  province,  is  not  to  be  lightly  disre- 
garded by  the  courts  two  centuries  later.  This  argument 
would  have  greater  force  were  it  supported  by  any  proof 
that  the  declaration  of  the  Assembly  was  acquiesced  in  by 
the  King's  Council  —  then  the  ultimate  Court  of  Appeal  for 
the  province.  There  is,  however,  no  such  proof,  and,  by  all 
the  principles  of  the  common  law  of  England,  the  consent 
of  the  people  of  this  province  was  not  enough  to  constitute 
a  repeal.  Statutes  regularly  enacted  are  never  repealed 
either  by  the  resolution  of  a  single  chamber  of  a  legislature 
of  the  Anglo-American  type,  or  by  non-user.  Indeed,  such 
a  proposition  has  been  expressly  declared  "to  be  abhorrent" 
to  those  first  principles  of  legislative  proceedings  acknow- 
ledged by  the  English  race  the  world  over.  Nor  will  the 
common  law  tolerate  the  repeal  of  an  act  of  a  legislature 

Ixxxii 


IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  RESOLUTION. 


by  mere  non-user — so  solemn  is  the  effect  of  the  act  of  a 
representative  government.  An  act  of  such  a  legislature, 
even  though  it  may  have  fallen  into  disuse,  revives,  when- 
ever invoked,  as  much  as  if  it  had  been  in  viridi  observantia. 
In  this  particular,  the  opposed  doctrine  of  the  civil  law 
never  prevailed  either  in  England  or  its  dependencies.  In 
one  case  only  in  English  law  has  a  statute  of  parliament 
ever  been  considered  as  repealed  by  disuse,  under  the 
principle  of  the  civil  law,  leges  consensu  omnium  per  desue- 
tudinem  abrogantur.  This  celebrated  instance,  much  dis- 
cussed by  writers  on  the  constitution  of  England,  relates 
to  a  statute  which  required  all  the  members  of  the  House 
of  Commons  to  be  residents  of  the  boroughs  or  shires 
where  elected.  This  statute,  before  it  was  repealed,  was 
constantly  disregarded  by  parliament.  But,  as  by  the  priv- 
ilege of  parliament  it  is  the  sole  judge  of  its  own  mem- 
bership, this  solitary  exception  is  not  to  be  regarded  as 
disturbing  the  integrity  of  the  rule  of  the  common  law 
indicated. 

The  undue  importance  now  attributed  in  New- York  to 
the  resolution  of  the  lower  house  in  1691,  must  afford  a 
sufficient  apology  for  the  space  here  employed  in  its  dis- 
cussion ;  for  if  it  was  operative  at  all,  the  laws  in  the 
accompanying  volume,  now  reprinted  under  the  auspices 
of  the  Grolier  Club  two  centuries  after  the  first  edition,  are 
to  be  regarded  as  the  first  valid  and  permanent  statutes 
of  the  Assembly  of  New-York.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
resolution  was  defective  as  a  repeal,  the  earlier  statutes  of 
New-York  passed  under  the  last  two  kings  of  the  Stuart 
dynasty  remained  operative  here  until  repealed  in  the 
modes  recognized  by  the  common  law,  and  the  statutes 
contained  in  this  volume  are  not  to  be  taken  as  the  first 
in  order  of  time. 

Ixxxiii 


White  v. 
Boot,  2T.R., 
274. 


i,3. 
32,  1. 

Case  of 
Dublin  Uni- 
versity, 1 
Peckwell's 
Cases  of 
Contro- 
verted Elec- 
tions, 43  ; 
and  note  D, 
P-  53- 

Stubbs'sCon- 
stitutional 
History  of 
England, 
III,  424; 
Hallam's 
Middle 
Ages,  III, 
119. 


GOVERNOR  BENJAMIN  FLETCHER. 


A  part  only  of  the  laws  embodied  in  the  present  volume 
were  enacted  at  the  several  sessions  of  the  Assembly 
which  first  convened  on  9  April,  1691.  The  first  ses- 
sion ended  on  18  May,  1691,  by  an  adjournment  to  the 
second  Tuesday  of  September  following.  During  the  ad- 
journment Governor  Sloughter  expired,  23  July,  1691,  at 
New-York.  The  Council  then  named  Richard  Ingoldsby, 
a  captain  of  an  independent  company,  president  of  the 
Council,  or  commander-in-chief  of  the  province;  and 
although  he  was  obnoxious  to  the  many  adherents  of 
Leisler,  he  served  as  executive  until  the  Governor  regu- 
larly appointed  by  the  crown  arrived  out  from  England. 
The  selection  of  Ingoldsby,  though  deemed  irregular,  as 
he  was  not  a  member  of  the  Council,  seems  to  have  been 
acquiesced  in  by  the  Assembly,  and  the  laws  passed  at 
its  second  and  third  sessions,  approved  by  him,  were  not 
afterward  questioned  because  of  the  irregularity  noticed. 

In  March,  1692,  Colonel  Benjamin  Fletcher  was  com- 
missioned the  successor  of  the  deceased  Governor.  His 
Coi.' Hist.      commission  and  instructions  resemble  those  of  his  pre- 

N.Y.   Ill  . 

818,  827.'  decessor.  Governor  Fletcher  arrived  out  on  29  August, 
1692,  and  at  an  adjourned  meeting  of  the  fourth  session 
of  the  first  Assembly  under  William  and  Mary,  the  new 
Governor  met  the  Assembly  then  in  session.  On  the 
next  day,  2  September,  1692,  having  first  requested  the 
advice  of  the  Council  on  the  legal  effect  of  the  demise  of 

journal  of      Governor  Sloughter,  Fletcher  officially  declared  to  the  As- 

the  Legisla- 
tive coun-      sembly  that  they  were  regularly  continued  in  session.  But 

cil,  of  N.  Y.,  ° 

T>  l9-  on  the  10th  of  the  month  he  prorogued  the  Assembly, 

and  on  the  14th  dissolved  it.  The  dissolution  was  fol- 
lowed by  writs  for  the  choice  of  new  representatives, 
and  on  26  October,  1692,  the  second  Assembly  held  in 
the  reign  of  William  and  Mary  met  at  the  city  of  New- 

lxxxiv 


FIRST  PUBLIC  PRINTER. 


York.1  James  Graham  was  again  elected  speaker  of  the 
House.  The  second  session2  of  this  Assembly  terminated 
on  27  July,  1693.  The  residue  of  the  laws  embodied  in 
the  present  volume  had  then  been  passed  and  approved 
by  the  executive,  but  at  that  time  there  was  no  printing- 
press  in  the  province,  and  the  laws  were  in  the  form  of 
engrossed  bills,  enrolled  in  the  office  of  the  secretary  of 
the  province. 

The  inconvenience  incidental  to  such  a  mass  of  ill- 
arranged  manuscript  laws  prompted  the  Council  of  New- 
York,  on  23  March,  1693,  to  offer  inducements  to  a  printer 
to  come  and  settle  in  the  province.  Attracted  by  these 
proffers,  Mr.  William  Bradford,  a  printer  of  Philadelphia, 
concluded  to  try  his  fortunes  in  New- York  instead  of  re- 
turning to  England,  as  he  had  about  that  time  contem- 
plated. With  this  object  in  view,  he  evidently  sojourned 
in  the  city  of  New- York  some  time  during  the  year  1693, 
but  whether  he  came  to  reside  there  until  1694  is  perhaps 
uncertain.  At  all  events,  the  date  now  fixed  by  the  anti- 
quaries and  the  Americanists  for  his  erection  of  the  first 


Wallace's 
Commem- 
orative 
Address  on 
William 
Bradford, 
p.  62. 


1The  assemblies  at  this  period  were 
chosen  for  no  stated  period.  Not  until 
1737  was  their  duration  restricted.  In  1743 
a  septennial  law  was  passed,  which  con- 
tinued in  force  down  to  the  War  of  Inde- 
pendence. 

2 The  term  "sessions"  used  in  the  va- 
rious imprints  of  the  laws  of  New-York 
has  occasioned  some  confusion.  I  am  in- 
debted to  an  eminent  Americanist  for  the 
following  observations  in  manuscript  : 

"All  the  legislative  periods  of  the  early 
assemblies  were  denominated  '  Sessions  of 
the  [number]  Assembly.'  I  have  called 
them  '  sittings  '  because  I  think  an  '  As- 
sembly '  lasted  till  it  was  dissolved ;  a  '  ses- 
sion,' till  it  was  prorogued  ;  and  a  '  sitting,' 
till  it  adjourned  by  the  Governor's  order. 
Take,  for  instance,  the  Twenty-seventh  As- 
sembly, which  lasted   from  October  24, 

6*  lxxxv 


1752,  to  December  16,  1758.  It  held 
ten  sessions,  of  which  the  sixth  had  nine 
sittings,  the  seventh  four  sittings,  the  tenth 
six  sittings,  and  each  of  the  others  one  sit- 
ting. The  loose  use  of  the  term  '  sessions ' 
was  a  source  of  trouble  as  early  as  1695, 
when  the  acts  of  the  second  session  of  the 
Fifth  Assembly  were  printed  as  the  '  Sixth 
Assembly,  first  sessions.'  All  writers  of  the 
laws  have  been  misled  by  it,  and  it  was  the 
cause  of  much  confusion  in  the  printing  of 
the  laws  down  to  the  Revolution.  Thus  the 
eighth  session  of  the  Twenty-ninth  As- 
sembly is  called  the  '  Twenty-first  Assem- 
bly'; and  the  sixth  and  seventh  sessions 
of  the  Thirty-first  Assembly  are  called  the 
'  Twenty-ninth  Assembly  '  and  the  '  Thir- 
tieth Assembly,  seventh  sessions,'  respec- 
tively." 


See  Appen- 
dix No.  HI, 
infra. 


WILLIAM  BRADFORD. 


Wallace,  63. 


Cf.  Wal- 
lace's Com- 
memorative 
Address ; 
Thomas's 
History  of 
Printing  in 
America,  II, 
7 ;  Printing 
in  New- York 
in  the  Seven- 
teenth Cen- 
tury, by 
Charles  R. 
Hildeburn, 
Esq.,  in  The 
Memorial 
History  of 
the  City  of 
New- York, 
I,  c.  XV; 
Appendix 
No.  IV, 
infra. 


Wallace,  85. 


Thomas,  II, 
287. 


See  the 
Charle- 
magne 
Tower 
Collection 
of  Colonial 


printing-press  in  New- York  is  10  April,  1693.  The  name 
of  Bradford  was  very  soon  thereafter  enrolled  in  the  "Civil 
List"  of  the  province.  In  his  capacity  of  printer  to  their 
Majesties  King  William  and  Queen  Mary,  Bradford 
printed  and  published  the  volume  now  so  accurately  re- 
produced. The  original  bound  volume  no  doubt  appeared 
early  in  the  year  1694,  and  was  the  second  or  third  book 
published  in  the  Province  of  New-York.  It  is  among 
the  rarest  of  Americana.  As  Bradford  is  regarded  as  the 
Caxton  of  the  Middle  Colonies,  his  life  is  deemed  interest- 
ing, and  his  biographers  have  gathered  many  particulars 
of  his  career,  some  of  which  are  not  free  from  controversy. 
Having  fallen  on  difficulties  in  Pennsylvania,  from  the  pub- 
lication of  an  unauthorized  edition  of  the  charter  of  Penn- 
sylvania, and  also  a  polemical  tract  relating  to  a  schism 
among  the  Quakers  of  Pennsylvania,  Bradford  had  almost 
determined  to  return  to  England  when  the  offer  of  the 
Council  of  New-York  no  doubt  induced  his  removal  to 
this  province.  In  1703,  having  become  an  Episcopalian, 
Mr.  Bradford  was  chosen  a  vestryman  of  Trinity  Church 
in  the  city  of  New- York — even  then  a  privileged  parish. 
This  distinction  he  enjoyed  for  some  years. 

In  the  Province  of  New-York,  Bradford  held  the  office 
of  printer  to  the  crown  during  the  reigns  of  William  and 
Mary,  Queen  Anne,  George  I.,  and  George  II.:  a  longer 
period  than  that  of  any  other  public  printer.  He  died  in  the 
city  of  New- York,  23  May,  1752,  in  his  ninetieth  year.  In 
November,  1725,  he  established  the  "New- York  Gazette," 
the  first  newspaper  published  in  the  city  of  New- York. 
In  addition  to  the  compilation  of  the  New- York  laws 
now  reproduced,  Bradford  compiled  and  published  various 
editions  of  the  laws.  The  separate  laws  of  New- York  as 
printed  by  Bradford  were  not  always  to  the  taste  of  the 

Ixxxvi 


THE  LAWS  OF  NEW-YORK. 


colonial  authorities  in  England;  for,  in  common  with  all  the 
other  editions  of  the  laws  of  New -York  published  prior  to 
the  War  of  Independence,  they  contained  omissions,  mis- 
prints, and  a  variety  of  other  inaccuracies.  In  this  con- 
nection Lord  Bellomont  wrote,  in  1699,  to  the  Lords  of 
Trade:  "But  as  for  a  more  correct  book  of  the  laws 
which  you  order  me  to  send 't  is  not  to  be  had.  I  sent  for 
the  printer  and  spoke  to  him  about  it,  and  he  told  me  there 
was  no  remedy  for  it  because  he  had  no  body  to  correct 
the  presse  at  the  time  he  printed  them."  From  time  to 
time  the  Assembly  commented  on  the  incorrectness  of  the 
various  compilations  and  revisions  of  the  laws  of  the 
province.  A  careful  examination  will,  however,  disclose 
that  the  original  Bradford  of  1694,  now  reproduced,  was 
a  faithful  edition  of  the  enrolled  laws  passed  by  the  As- 
sembly between  the  years  1691  and  1694. 


Laws,  title, 
New- York; 
Catalogue 
of  Books 
printed  by 
William 
Bradford 
and  other 
printers  in 
the  Middle 
Colonies, 
exhibited  at 
the  Grolier 
Club, 14-21 
April,  1893. 

Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.Y.,  IV, 
522. 

Journal  of 
the  Assem- 
bly, I, 
823 ;  Liv- 
ingston and 
Smith'sN.Y. 
Laws,  c.  907, 

I,  443 ;  Van 
Schaack's 
N.Y.  Laws, 

II,  676. 


Ixxxvii 


CHAPTER  III. 


HEN  Bradford,  in  the  year  1694,  published 
the  first  compilation  of  the  laws  of  New- 
York,  now  reproduced  in  this  volume,  the 
entire  white  population  of  the  Province  of 
New-York  could  not  have  exceeded  twenty  thousand. 
Since  the  English  conquest  in  1664,  it  had  apparently 
doubled  on  itself,  notwithstanding  that  the  extent  of  ter- 
ritory formerly  embraced  in  New  Netherland  had  been 
greatly  reduced  by  the  Duke  of  York's  grants  of  New 
Jersey  and  the  minimising  boundary  established  with 
Connecticut.  In  1694  the  city  and  county  of  New-York 
alone  contained  some  four  thousand  souls,  and  Albany 
County  about  fifteen  hundred  persons,  exclusive  of  thir- 
teen hundred  and  twenty  Indians ;  while  Long  Island, 

lxxxviii 


Statistics  of 
Population; 
Doc.  Hist. 
N.Y.,  1,687. 


CONDITION  OF  JURISPRUDENCE  IN  NEW-YORK. 


the  most  secure  portion  of  the  province,  had  a  popula- 
tion of  over  eight  thousand.  The  numbers  of  the  colo- 
nists were  everywhere  increasing  with  that  augmenting 
industry  and  prosperity  which  were  promoted  by  the 
annexation  of  the  province  to  the  extensive  British  do- 
minions. Still,  the  greater  part  of  the  inhabitants  of 
New- York  were  of  Dutch  descent,  and  in  the  two  ob-  coLHist. 
longs  consisting  of  Long  Island  and  the  territory  bor-  ^js!''111, 
dering  on  the  Hudson  River,  they  long  continued  in 
their  daily  intercourse  to  speak  the  Low  Dutch  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  But  soon  after  the  conquest  of  1664, 
the  Dutch  language  had  ceased  abruptly  to  be  either  the 
medium  of  legislation  or  of  official  usage,  although  for  a 
long  time  proclamations  continued  not  infrequently  to  be 
issued  in  both  the  English  and  the  Dutch  tongues,  either 
of  which  the  municipal  courts  employed  as  convenience 
dictated.  Few  persons  now  realize  how  long  or  to  what 
extent  the  Dutch  language  remained  in  common  use  in 
large  districts  of  the  province.  In  the  year  1758,  when 
the  province  had  been  nearly  a  century  under  English 
rule,  fourteen  resident  lawyers  of  New-York,  in  a  mem- 
orial to  the  Council  of  the  province,  convened  as  a 
"Legislative  House,"  affirmed  "that  in  several  counties 
the  English  Tongue  is  so  little  spoken  that  it  is  difficult 
to  find  Justices  of  the  Peace  able  to  copy  a  Warrant  for  ap- 

Journal 

prehending  a  Felon  and  much  less  to  preside  as  a  Judge  Legislative 

r  0  Council,  II, 

Of  Law."  1324, note. 

A  consideration  of  the  text  of  the  laws  contained  in  the 
present  volume  may  possibly  be  aided  by  a  brief  review 
of  the  state  of  the  jurisprudence  in  New-York  in  the  year 
1694.  By  the  terms  of  the  patents  to  the  Duke  of  York 
and  the  charters  granted  by  the  governors  to  the  several 
municipalities,  but  particularly  by  the  commissions  under 

lxxxix 


LAWS  OF  ENGLAND  IN  FORCE  HERE. 


the  great  seal  of  England  and  the  instructions  from  the 
crown  to  the  governors  of  the  province,  which  had  the 
prerogative  force  of  law,  the  legislation  in  New-York  after 
the  year  1664  was  directed  to  conform  in  its  essential 
features  to  the  general  principles  of  the  laws  of  England. 
This  was  well  understood  before  the  War  of  Indepen- 
dence. Whatever  we  may  now  think  of  the  motives  of  the 
English  bureaucracy,  their  colonial  administration  pro- 
ceeded theoretically  on  fixed  and  intelligent  principles.  It 
was  not  fortuitous.  In  1732  the  chief  justice  of  New- 
York,  Morris,  distinctly  states  in  his  petition  before  men- 
tioned :  "Your  Majestie  and  Your  Royall  Predecessors  have 
been  Graciously  Pleased  by  the  generall  tenor  of  Your  in- 
structions to  your  Governours  to  make  the  laws  of  Eng- 
land the  Standard  rule  and  Measure  by  which  your  Sub- 
jects inhabiting  the  Province  of  New-York  should  be 
Governed  as  nearly  as  the  Circumstances  of  dominions  So 
distant  would  admit."  This  general  statement  conforms 
to  the  precise  fact ;  for  it  was  not  by  any  particular  ordi- 
nance or  mandate  that  the  common  law  of  England  was 
introduced  here  by  the  conqueror,  but  by  a  series  of  direc- 
tions and  commissions  so  subtile  oftentimes  as  to  escape 
in  this  century  the  notice  of  several  distinguished  jurists, 
who  have  preferred  to  assume  that  the  common  law  was 
always  in  force  in  New-York  by  virtue  of  a  text  of  the 
English  commentators,  rather  than  to  investigate  so  ar- 
chaic a  subject  as  the  precise  manner  of  its  introduction. 
This  is  not  extraordinary  if  we  consider  also  that  an  im- 
mense mass  of  one  kind  of  colonial  legislation — that  by 
judicial  decision — even  now  remains  almost  absolutely 
unexplored.  There  were  until  the  close  of  the  last  century 
no  printed  reports  of  the  judicial  decisions  of  the  New- 
York  courts,  and  the  colonial  bar,  which  was  rather  a  close 

xc 


LAW  OF  REAL  PROPERTY  IN  NEW-YORK. 


order,  possibly  preferred  to  have  them  left  unpublished 
and  dependent  on  knowledge  and  tradition.  Thus  it  hap- 
pens in  any  event  that  a  good  many  things  at  the  base  of 
even  our  present  institutions  have  been  permitted  to  rest 
on  assumptions  rather  than  facts.  About  one  proposition 
there  is,  however,  no  obscurity :  that  the  common  law  of 
England  was,  after  the  year  1664,  by  the  general  character 
of  the  legislation  indicated,  substituted  as  the  norm  or 
ultimate  rule  for  all  cases  arising  in  New-York  and  not 
distinctly  provided  for  by  the  local  statutes.  Yet  the  pre- 
cise mode  by  which  this  substitution  was  accomplished  is 
involved  in  needless  obscurity. 

When  the  common  law  of  a  new  or  conquered  country 
is  determined  by  the  adoption  of  the  common  law  of  a 
dominant  race,  particular  institutions  will  soon  be  found 
to  accord  with  the  rationale  of  such  common  law.  Thus 
it  was  with  that  great  department  of  the  positive  law  of 
New- York  which  is  technically  termed  the  "Law  of  real 
estate";  or,  more  expressively,  the  "land  law."  The 
patents  from  King  Charles  II.  to  the  Duke  of  York  con- 
veyed the  vast  body  of  land  described  in  the  previous 
chapter  as  claimed  by  the  Dutch,  to  be  holden  of  the 
King,  his  heirs,  and  successors  "as  of  our  manor  of  *wi\a' P 
East  Greenwich  and  our  County  of  Kent  in  free  and 
common  Soccage  and  not  in  capite  nor  by  Knight  ser- 
vice Yielding  and  rendering."  The  Duke  of  York  cov- 
enanted "to  yield  and  render"  to  the  crown  for  the  coLHist. 

N.  Y.  II 

same  yearly  forty  beaverskins,  when  demanded  or  within  296. 
ninety  days  after.  This  language  conformed  to  a  gen- 
eral usage.  The  territories  in  North  America  were  or- 
dinarily granted  by  the  crown  to  be  held  either  as  of  the 
manor  of  East  Greenwich  in  Kent,  or  as  of  the  King's 
castle  of  Windsor  in  the  county  of  Berks,  although  some 

xci 


DUTCH  LAND  LAW  CHANGED. 


See  Penn's 
Charter,  4 
March, 
1682 


12  Car.  II, 
c.  24. 


Supra,  p. 
lvi. 


Smith's 
Hist,  of  the 
Prov.  of  N. 
Y.,  ed.  of 
1829,  I,  35; 
Hoffman's 
Treatise 
upon  the 
Estate  and 
Rights  of  the 
Corporation 
of  the  City 
of  New- 
York,  I,  95. 


grants  were  as  of  Hampton  Court.  The  patent  to  the 
Duke  of  York  therefore  expressly  introduced  in  New- 
York  the  socage  tenure,  and  with  this  tenure  all  its  in- 
cidents. Now,  the  statute  12  Car.  II.,  c.  24,  had,  four 
years  before,  finally  abolished  feudal  tenures.  It  had  also 
provided  that  all  tenures  thereafter  created  by  the  King 
should  be  in  free  and  common  socage  only,  and  not  by 
knight-service,  or  in  capite ;  and  that  they  should  be 
discharged  of  all  wardship,  value,  and  forfeitures  of  mar- 
riage, livery,  primer  seizin,  ousterlemain,  aide  pur  faier 
fitz  ckivalier,  and  pur  file  marrier.  The  Duke  of  York's 
patents  conformed  to  the  requirements  of  this  statute. 
But  although  the  reformed  socage  tenure  alone  was  in- 
troduced in  New- York,  the  "Duke's  Laws"  virtually  re- 
enacted  the  English  statute.  The  tenure  in  free  and 
common  socage  as  it  existed  in  England  in  the  year  1664, 
the  date  of  the  Duke  of  York's  first  patent,  was  the  most 
liberal  of  all  the  English  tenures,  so  much  so  that  it  is 
thought  by  many  writers  to  have  been  the  lineal  suc- 
cessor of  the  allodial  proprietorship  of  early  times.  It 
had  little  in  common  with  the  military  or  feudal  tenures 
abolished  by  the  Long  Parliament.  The  feudal  system 
of  England  never  prevailed  in  New-York. 

The  English  authorities,  immediately  after  the  conquest 
of  New  Netherland,  set  about  getting  rid  of  the  Dutch 
land  law  described  in  Chapter  I.  of  this  Introduction. 
The  estate  of  the  Dutch  West  India  Company,  which 
embraced  all  the  unsettled  lands  in  the  territory,  was  for- 
mally confiscated.  But  where  the  lands  claimed  by  the 
Dutch  were  actually  occupied  by  Indians,  it  at  first  re- 
mained necessary  to  obtain  a  license  from  the  Governor 
to  extinguish  the  Indian  claim  before  a  patent  would  be 
issued  by  the  colonial  authorities,  although  the  patent  was 


XCll 


SOCAGE  TENURE  IN  NEW-YORK. 


not  void  if  the  Indian  title  had  not  been  extinguished. 
By  the  Duke's  Laws  of  1664,  and  amendments  adopted 
a  little  later,  those  who  held  land  by  the  Dutch  tenure 
were  compelled  to  take  out  new  confirmatory  patents,  re- 
citing a  tenure  of  his  Royal  Highness  the  Lord  Proprie- 
tor. The  record  of  the  Court  of  Assizes,  25  March,  1667, 
states  "that  ye  Sole  reason  of  renewing  all  former  ground- 
breifes  was  and  is  to  abolish  ye  expresse  Conditions  con- 
tained in  every  one  of  them,  to  hould  their  Lands  and 
houses  from  and  under  ye  States  of  Holland  and  ye  West 
India  Company  in  Amsterdam  as  their  Lords  and 
Maisters."  The  Dutch  generally  complied  with  these  re- 
quirements, and,  indeed,  in  the  absence  of  proof  of  com- 
pliance, the  presumption  of  law  would  be  that  the  Dutch 
grants  were  converted  into  the  socage  tenure,  pursuant 
to  the  law.  Those  lands  of  the  province  which  were  held 
of  the  Dutch  West  India  Company  before  the  conquest, 
were  now  held  of  the  Duke  of  York,  and  were  subject 
to  the  reformed  law  of  England  regulating  the  tenure  in 
free  and  common  socage.  At  this  period  no  such  thing  as 
an  allodial  ownership  of  socage  lands  was  conceived  of 
by  the  common  lawyers  :  the  tenant  had  only  an  estate  in 
them,  but  an  estate  subject  to  no  more  burdensome  feudal 
incidents  than  those  styled  by  the  common  lawyers,  "rent," 
"fealty,"  and  "escheats."  The  nature  of  the  quit-rents  in 
New- York  prior  to  the  year  1732  is  most  conveniently  dis- 
closed in  a  report  of  the  surveyor-general  of  the  province. 
A  consideration  of  these  leading  facts  enables  us  to  per- 
ceive the  condition  of  the  land  law  of  New- York  at  the 
time  when  the  permanent  representative  government  was 
established  by  William  and  Mary,  in  whose  reign  the  acts 
contained  in  this  volume  were  passed. 

In  many  other  respects  the  land  law  of  the  province  was 


Duke's  Laws, 
title,Indians; 
Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  XIII, 

395.  396; 
an  act 

"concerning 

purchaseing 

of  lands  from 

Indians," 

passed  23 

October, 

1684. 

Jackson  v. 
Hudson,  3 
Johns.,  383; 
Fletcher  v. 
Peck,  6 
Cranch,  87. 


Cf.  Report 
of  Gov. 
Try on,  11 
June,  1774, 
Doc.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  I, 
749- 

Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y., 
XIV,  629. 

People  v. 
Livingston, 
8  Barb., 
276;  Van 
Schaack's 
N.  Y. 
Laws,  1, 87. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  I, 
377- 


XClll 


CONVEYANCING  IN  NEW-YORK. 


Duke'sLaws, 
title,  Con- 
veyances, 
Deeds,  and 
Writings. 


Duke'sLaws, 
title,  Con- 
veyances, 
etc. 


See  Colonial 
Laws  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, 
p.  140;  Bos- 
ton edition 
of  1880. 


soon  settled  according  to  the  traditions  and  usages  of 
England.  The  Duke's  Laws  of  1664  did  not  leave  even 
the  forms  of  conveyancing  to  develop  on  the  simpler  lines 
employed  in  the  province  when  it  was  under  the  Dutch 
West  India  Company,  but  they  prescribed  anew  the  forms 
for  future  conveyances.  They  ordained  that  the  habendum 
of  all  deeds  and  conveyances  of  houses  and  lands  within 
this  government  when  an  estate  of  inheritance  was  to  pass, 
should  be  expressed  in  these  words:  "To  have  and  to 
hold  the  said  houses  and  Lands  Respectively  to  the  party 
or  grantee,  his  heirs  and  Assigns  forever."  If  an  en- 
tailed estate  was  to  pass,  then  that  it  should  be  expressed 
in  these  words:  "To  have  and  to  hold,  etc.,  to  the  grantee 
and  to  the  heirs  of  his  body  Lawfully  begotten  between 
him  and  such  an  one  his  Wife,"  etc.  Thereafter  no  sale  or 
alienation  of  lands  was  good  in  law  "except  the  same  be 
done  by  Deed  in  writing  under  hand  and  Seal  and  deliv- 
ered and  possession  given  upon  part  in  the  name  of  the 
whole  by  the  Seller  or  his  Attorney  so  Authorized  under 
hand  and  seal,  Unless  the  said  deed  be  acknowledged  and 
Recorded  according  to  Law."  Due  provision  was  made 
for  recording  such  instruments,  as  it  has  been  said  by 
some  writers,  in  accordance  with  the  former  Dutch  law 
in  the  province.  But  even  at  that  time  the  recording  or 
enrolling  in  proper  offices  of  deeds  of  bargain  and  sale  had 
been  made  entirely  familiar  to  Englishmen  by  the  statute 
27  Hen.  VIII.,  c.  16  ;  and  therefore  the  paternity  of  the 
practice  in  New- York  may  be  ascribed  to  the  earlier  cus- 
tom of  the  Dutch  only  with  some  ingenuity.1  The  entire 
familiarity  of  the  Dutch  inhabitants  of  New-York  with 
the  custom  doubtless  aided  the  law  in  practice.  By  such 
regulations  as  those  indicated,  the  English  land  law  was 

1  In  Massachusetts  deeds  were  ordered  to  be  recorded  "after  the  end  of  October,  1640. " 


xciv 


ENGLISH  MANORIAL  SYSTEM  PERPETUATED. 

substituted  by  the  English  for  the  earlier  law  outlined  in 
Chapter  I.  of  this  Introduction. 

Among  the  other  notable  features  of  the  land  law  of 
New- York  as  it  stood  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of 
William  and  Mary  is  the  attempt  to  perpetuate  the  mano- 
rial system  of  England  then  observable  here.  The  only 
systematic  study  so  far  made  of  the  manors  of  New- 
York — a  work  of  great  usefulness  and  learning,  by  Mr. 
Edward  F.  de  Lancey — does  not  ascribe  a  reason  for  the 
adoption  or  the  perpetuation  of  the  manorial  system  in  so 
new  a  country.  Yet  this  reason  seems  obvious.  In  many 
other  parts  of  English  America,  notably  in  New  England, 
the  primitive  settlements  maintained  order  through  a  sys- 
tem of  town  governments  somewhat  autonomous,  but  not 
manorial,  in  character.  The  Dutch  authorities,  recognizing 
the  fact  that  the  scattered  colonies  from  the  Low  Countries 
would  necessarily  be  too  far  distant  from  the  seat  of  the 
local  government  in  New  Netherland  to  be  subject  to  the 
daily  discipline  of  the  central  authority,  conferred  a  familiar 
manorial  jurisdiction  on  the  patroons  of  the  various  colo- 
nies in  New  Netherland  with  the  evident  intention  of  sub- 
jecting the  colonists  to  the  police  and  the  civil  jurisdictions 
known  to  the  patroonships  or  manors  of  Holland.1  The 
essence  of  a  manor  everywhere  was  the  manor  court. 
Through  this  familiar  court  a  semblance  of  local  govern- 
ment was  at  once  attainable  in  the  Dutch  colonies.  At 
the  English  conquest  in  1664,  several  patroonships  were 
found  existing  in  the  province.  After  negotiations  on  the 
part  of  the  owners  of  Rensselaerswyck,  their  manorial 

,    ,        ,  ,    .  Doc.  rel. 

rights  were  recognized  by  the  new  government ;  and  in  coi.  Hist. 
1685  tne  patroonship  was  converted  into  an  English  manor,  269. 

1  Two  magistrates  or  justices  (gerecktspersoonen),  and  the  commissary,  formed 
the  court  of  the  patroonship  of  Rensselaerswyck. 


xcv 


STATUTES  OF  PARLIAMENT. 


afterward  confirmed1  and  held  on  the  reformed  socage 
tenure  established  by  the  Duke's  patents.  The  privi- 
lege of  maintaining  within  the  manor  a  manor  court  was 
continued  under  the  form  of  the  court  leet  and  the  court 
baron  known  to  the  English  manorial  system.  After 
1664,  other  manors,  embracing  extensive  tracts  of  terri- 
tory, were  lawfully  created  in  the  province,  and  possessed 
like  privileges  to  those  enjoyed  by  Rensselaerswyck.  As 
these  manors  were  not  created  as  a  reward  of  merit,  or  by 
reason  of  the  interest,  or  even  on  account  of  the  distin- 
guished services,  of  the  grantees,  it  may  be  conjectured 
that  in  so  far  as  their  erection  in  the  wilderness  had  any 
political  design  whatever,  it  was  similar  to  that  animating 
the  Dutch  patroonships :  they  were  intended  to  continue  to 
be  the  nuclei  of  colonization,  and  to  afford  a  ready-made 
local  government  of  the  colonists  in  distant  and  almost 
inaccessible  regions  of  the  new  country.  But  it  is  beyond 
the  scope  of  this  Introduction  to  do  more  than  to  indicate 
the  general  nature  of  the  land  system  already  established 
here  when  the  acts  of  Assembly  were  first  published  by 
Bradford  in  the  year  1694. 

The  particular  jurisprudence  of  New-York,  established 
by  the  English  authorities  in  the  modes  pointed  out,  was, 
as  early  as  1694,  irregularly  modified  by  the  statutes  of 
the  parliament  of  England,  some  of  which  were  held  to  be 
in  force  in  this  province.  The  precise  degree  to  which 
these  English  statutes  were  operative  here,  as  well  as  the 


1  The  date  of  the  several  English  letters 
patent  or  manor  grants  of  Rensselaerswyck 
are  as  follows  :  (i)  Thomas  Dongan,  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, etc.,  to  Kiliaen,  son  of 
Johannes  Van  Rensselaer,  and  Kiliaen,  son 
of  Jeremias  Van  Rensselaer,  dated  4  No- 
vember, 1685.  Liber  of  Patents,  No.  5, 
p.  228 ;    Secretary  of  State's  office,  Al- 


bany. (2)  Lord  Cornbury,  Governor,  etc., 
to  Kiliaen  Van  Rensselaer,  eldest  son  of 
Jeremias,  dated  20  May,  1702.  Liber  of 
Patents,  No.  7,  p.  237  ;  Secretary  of  State's 
office,  Albany.  These  last  letters  were 
given  in  consequence  of  the  death  of  Kiliaen, 
son  of  Johannes,  without  issue. 


xevi 


WHAT  STATUTES  EXTENDED  HERE. 


principle  on  which  they  were  so  applicable,  were  moot 
points  at  all  times  prior  to  their  substantial  reenactment 
and  repeal  by  the  legislature  of  this  State  in  1788. 
Some  of  the  English  statutes  were  only  confirmatory  of 
the  common  law ;  and  about  this  kind,  when  passed  before 
the  conquest  of  1664,  there  was  little  question  made  that 
they  extended  here.  About  other  English  statutes,  either 
reformatory  or  penal  in  character,  there  was  more  ques- 
tion. The  general  rules  on  the  subject  were  to  the  effect 
that  those  acts  of  parliament  passed  before  the  acquisition 
of  ceded  or  conquered  countries  had  in  general  no  force 
there  unless  adopted  or  incorporated  by  royal  or  parlia- 
mentary authority,  or  by  act  of  their  own  legislatures : 
after  the  establishment  of  a  local  legislature  no  subse- 
quent act  of  parliament  extended  to  a  conquered  or  ceded 
country  unless  it  was  expressly  named.  When  the  com- 
mon law  of  England  was  once  established  by  authority  in 
a  country  so  acquired,  the  anterior  acts  of  parliament,  if 
suited  to  the  new  conditions,  were  deemed  to  extend  there. 
The  arbitrary  way  in  which  these  principles  were,  in  the 
next  century,  applied  by  the  courts  of  New- York,  ex- 
cited the  animadversion  of  the  colonial  lawyers.  But  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  as  is  disclosed  by  a  report  of  the 
chief  justice  of  the  province,  there  was  apparently  less 
confusion  on  the  subject  than  at  a  later  day.  The  chief 
justice  stated  that  all  trials  were  then  governed  by  "  the 
common  law  of  England  and  that  severall  statutes  there 
made  declarative  thereof."  This  opinion  was  evidently 
based  on  the  assumption  that  the  province  had  been  ac- 
quired by  England  through  conquest  and  cession.  But 
the  examination  of  the  rolls  of  a  few  contemporary  cases 
discloses  that  no  very  self-consistent  theory  was  uni- 
formly applied  in  New-York  by  the  lower  courts  of  the 


Jones  and 
Varick's 
N.  Y.  Laws, 
II,  282. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  IV, 
828. 


Smith's 
Hist.  Prov. 
ofN.  Y. :  I, 
243,  Lon- 
don edi- 
tion of 
1757;  and 
American 
edition  of 

1829,11,47, 
note. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  IV, 
828. 


xcvn 


JUDICIAL  ESTABLISHMENT  IN  NEW-YORK. 


Cf.  Tuck- 
er's Black- 
stone's 
Commenta- 
ries, I,  393 ; 
Dane's 
Abridg- 
ment, VI, 
art.  7,  p.  606; 
Jackson,  ex 
dem.  Wood- 
ruff v .  Gil- 
christ, 15 
Johnson, 
109 ;  Lessee 
of  Levy  v. 
M'Cartee, 
6  Peters, 
108,  110. 


p.  2. 


province,  although  the  ultimate  rule  upon  the  subject  was 
then  tolerably  well  settled  if  it  happened  that  the  suitor 
chose,  as  few  did,  to  pursue  his  appeal  to  the  King  in 
council.  This  uncertainty  in  so  extensive  a  department 
of  the  positive  law  was  not  peculiar  to  the  Province  of 
New-York :  it  is  inevitable  in  any  country  where  a  ready- 
made  jurisprudence  of  an  older  civilization  is  adopted  with 
a  fundamental  reservation  to  the  effect  that  the  old  juris- 
prudence must  not  be  unsuited  to  the  conditions  of  the 
newer  country.  Such  a  reservation  necessarily  leaves  the 
whole  matter  to  judicial  legislation,  and,  until  the  old 
statutes  are  separately  passed  on,  some  confusion  is  un- 
avoidable.1 A  like  confusion  is  observable  in  the  juris- 
prudence of  those  countries  of  Europe  which  adopted  the 
Roman  law  as  the  common  law,  the  precise  extent  of  such 
adoption  having  been  a  prolific  source  of  controversy — the 
delight  of  the  professional  dialectician. 

Without  anticipating  the  commentary  on  the  text  of  the 
acts  embraced  in  the  volume  of  laws  here  reproduced,  it 
may  be  remarked  at  this  point  that  the  judicial  establish- 
ment of  New- York  received,  in  1691,  from  the  "Act  for 
establishing  Courts  of  Judicature,"  that  final  form  which 
it  retained  without  substantial  modification  until  late  in 
the  present  century.  In  a  report  to  the  executive,  Lord 
Bellomont,  the  chief  justice  of  New -York,  in  the  year 
1700,  summarizes  the  nature  of  the  judicial  establishment 
as  follows :  "  That  the  courts  of  law  in  this  province  es- 
tablished are  the  Corporation  Courts  who  derive  their 
power  from  Charters  granted  from  severall  persons  who 
have  heretofore  commanded  this  province.    And  the  pro- 


Journal,  JThe   Continental    Congress,  held  in 

P-  29-  Philadelphia  in  the  year  1774,  attempted 

to  put  an  end  to  the  doubts  on  this  subject 


by  a  series  of  resolutions  declaring  the  rules 
to  be  observed. 


xcvm 


SELF-GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW-YORK. 


vincial  courts  which  are  authorized  from  an  ordinance  of 
your  Excellent  and  Councill  in  virtue  of  the  powers  given 
you  by  His  Majties  letters  pattents  under  the  great  seal 
of  England."  The  act  contained  in  this  volume,  and  en- 
titled "An  act  establishing  Courts  of  Judicature,"  having 
been  continued  until  it  expired  in  1699  DY  limitation,  it 
will  be  observed  that  the  courts  other  than  the  municipal 
courts  are  properly  referred  by  the  chief  justice  to  an 
ordinance  of  the  Governor  and  Council.  Some  of  the 
modern  works  on  the  later  courts  of  New-York  have 
failed  to  observe  this  distinction,  which  is  explained 
in  the  notes  on  the  acts  appended  to  this  chapter. 
It  will  now  suffice  to  point  out  that  when  the  legislature 
met  in  the  year  1691,  the  courts  of  New- York  were  fully 
established  upon  the  models  of  the  ancient  courts  of  Eng- 
land, but  with  jurisdictions  which,  from  their  antiquity, 
were  part  of  the  system  of  law  then  freshly  administered 
here.  By  1691  the  laws  of  New  Netherland  had  been 
virtually  repealed  or  annulled,  except  in  so  far  as  they 
were  still  reserved  by  the  articles  of  capitulation,  or  rec- 
ognized by  that  fundamental  canon  of  the  jurisprudence 
of  all  Christian  countries  which  gives  effect  to  the  laws  of 
a  conquered  Christian  country  until  expressly  abrogated. 
Even  at  the  present  day  the  courts  of  New-York  do  not 
refuse  to  recognize  these  principles,  so  universally  ac- 
knowledged, even  though  the  lapse  of  time  causes  the 
Dutch  laws  to  be  rarely,  and  then  indirectly,  invoked. 

With  the  erection  of  a  legislative  assembly  in  New- 
York  in  the  manner  pointed  out  in  the  preceding  chapter 
of  the  Introduction,  the  Province  of  New- York  entered 
finally  in  1691  on  a  measure  of  self-government.  The 
Governor,  with  the  consent  of  the  Council  and  Assembly, 
was  invested  by  a  commission  from  the  crown,  with  full 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  IV, 
828. 


pp.  2,  64. 


Notes  2, 26, 
infra. 


Denton  v. 
Jackson, 
2  Johns., 
Ch.  320; 
1  Hopkins, 
288;  2 Wen- 
dell, 109; 
Dunham  v. 
Williams, 
36  Barb. , 
136;  37  N. 
Y.,  251; 
Bartow  v. 
Draper, 
5  Duer, 

I3°>  145; 
Van  Giesen 
v.  Bridg- 
ford,  18 
Hun,  73; 
Story  v. 
Elevated 
R.  R.  Co., 3 
Abb.  N.C, 
478,  489 ; 
Smith  v. 
Rentz,  131 
N.  Y.,  169, 
175- 


XC1X 


GOVERNMENT  OF  ENGLISH  PLANTATIONS. 


power  and  authority  to  make,  constitute,  and  ordain  laws, 
statutes,  and  ordinances  for  the  public  peace,  welfare,  and 
good  government  of  the  province.  But  such  laws,  statutes, 
and  ordinances  were  to  be,  as  near  as  might  be,  agreeable 
to  the  laws  and  statutes  of  England.  All  such  laws,  stat- 
utes, and  ordinances  were  to  be,  within  three  months  or 
sooner  after  the  making  thereof,  transmitted  to  the  King, 
under  the  seal  of  New-York,  for  his  approbation  or  disal- 
lowance. Duplicates  were  to  be  transmitted  by  the  next 
conveyance.  In  case  any  or  all  of  them  being  not  con- 
firmed should  not  be  approved,  and  so  signified  by  the 

Doc.  rel.  .  . 

coi.  Hist.     crown  under  its  sign  manual  or  by  order  of  the  Privy 

N.  Y.,  Ill,  °  J  J 

624.  Council,  then  those  disallowed  were  to  be  utterly  void. 

These  provisions  left  the  acts  of  the  Legislature  of  New- 
The  People    York  in  force  until  they  were  formally  rejected  by  the 

v.  the  Rec-  J  j        j  j 

tor,  etc.,  of  crown.  In  other  words,  the  acts,  though  probationary 
church^?/  until  confirmed,  were  presumptively  in  force  until  dis- 
Y.,44,  50.  allowed.  As  the  burden  of  proving  that  an  act  was  an- 
nulled by  the  King  is  cast  on  those  claiming  against  the 
validity  of  the  act,  the  mode  of  dealing  with  an  act  of  the 
New- York  Assembly  transmitted  to  England  for  approba- 
tion or  disallowance  cannot  be  irrelevant  here.  Its  con- 
sideration involves  a  brief  account  of  the  administration 
of  the  colonies  in  the  seventeenth  century. 

The  general  supervision  and  management  of  the  Eng- 
lish possessions  in  America  was  intrusted  by  King  Charles 
II.,  by  royal  commission  dated  1  December,  1660,  to  a 
standing  council  of  forty-eight  noblemen  and  gentlemen, 
who  were  charged  with  the  colonial  correspondence  and 

Doc.  rel.  ,       , .  .  . 

coi.  Hist.     the  disposition  of  all  matters  relating  to  the  good  govern- 
30,32!        ment  and  the  improvement  of  foreign  plantations.  On 
21  December,  1674,  this  commission  was  revoked,  and 
their  books  and  papers  were  directed  to  be  delivered  to 


LAWS  OF  THE  NEW-YORK  ASSEMBLY. 


the  clerk  of  the  Privy  Council.    On  12  March,  1675,  by    Doc.  rel. 
an  order  in  council,  whatever  matters  had  been  under  the    n.  y./iii, 

228 

cognizance  of  the  late  Council  of  Foreign  Plantations  were 
referred  to  a  committee  of  the  Privy  Council  appointed  for 
matters  relating  to  trade  and  foreign  plantations.  Their 
lordships  were  empowered  to  call  for  all  documents  rela- 
tive to  the  colonies,  and  were  directed  to  meet  at  least  once    Col  sLt 

N  Y.  Ill 

a  week  and  report  to  his  Majesty  in  council.  Upon  the  229. 
accession  of  King  James  II.,  the  committee  of  the  Privy 
Council  remained  charged  with  the  same  duties  as  before; 
and  New- York,  having  devolved  on  the  crown,  fell  under 
the  supervision  of  such  committee.  Thereafter  all  acts  of 
the  Assembly  were  subjected  to  the  consideration  of  this 
committee,  until  the  year  1696, — a  period  later  than  any  of 
the  laws  in  this  volume, — when  the  "Board  of  Trade"  was 
finally  commissioned  and  charged  with  the  supervision  of 
the  plantations.     Subsequent  to  1696  the  colonial  acts 

Doc  rcl 

were  referred  to  the  "Board  of  Trade,"  by  whom  they  coi.Hist. 
were  returned  to  the  King  in  council.  698,  699. 

The  laws  in  this  volume,  when  transmitted  to  the 
Privy  Council  in  England  under  the  seal  of  New-York, 
were  referred  by  that  body  to  the  committee  appointed 
for  matters  relating  to  trade  and  foreign  plantations. 
This  committee  then  referred  the  acts  either  to  the  law- 
officers  of  the  crown  or  to  special  counsel,  on  the  re- 
ceipt of  whose  opinion  they  drew  up  a  formal  report  or 
representation  recommending  the  repeal  or  the  disallow- 
ance of  the  particular  act,  or  its  confirmation,  as  the  case 
might  be ;  or  else  that  such  act  should  be  permitted  to  be 
operative  by  "lapse  of  time,"  without  the  formal  assent  of 
the  crown  signified.  This  last  course  left  such  act,  ac- 
cording to  the  English  idea,  probationary  or  indefinitely 
subject  to  the  King's  repeal.    The  Privy  Council  usually 

7*  ci 


RECORD  DEPOSITORIES. 


See  forms 
in  Bacon's 
Laws  of 
Maryland 
at  Large, 
anno  1765 ; 
note  to 
Chap. 

XVII,  Laws 
of  1692; 
also  notes 
to  Vol.  I, 
Acts  and 
Resolves  of 
the  Prov- 
ince of 
Massachu- 
setts Bay, 
Boston, 
1869;  and 
Appendix 
No.  II,  this 
volume. 

C.  175, 
N.  Y.  Laws 
of  1849;  and 
C.  168,  N.  Y. 
Laws  of 
1856. 


C.  120,  N. 
Y.  Laws  of 
1 881. 

C.  120,  N. 
Y.  Laws  of 
1881. 


Infra, 
Appendix 
No.  I. 


proceeded  in  conformity  with  the  report  or  representa- 
tion of  the  Committee  of  Trade  and  Foreign  Plantations 
to  repeal  or  confirm  the  act  by  "orders  in  council";  or 
else  it  took  no  further  action  on  the  act,  thus  leaving  it 
in  force  ex  proprio  vigore. 

Portions  only  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Privy  Council 
relative  to  the  acts  contained  in  this  volume  have  been 
transcribed  and  published  by  direction  of  the  State  of 
New-York  in  the  series  of  volumes  known  as  the 
"  Documents  relating  to  the  Colonial  History  of  the  State 
of  New-York,"  so  frequently  used  in  this  Introduction. 
The  last-named  publications  are  not  seldom  cited  in  the 
course  of  judicial  proceedings,  but  precisely  how  far  they 
are  to  be  treated  as  evidence  in  themselves  is  somewhat 
conjectural.  The  originals  of  the  laws  contained  in  the 
volume  of  Bradford,  reproduced  in  this  volume,  are  now 
in  the  State  Library  at  Albany,  of  which  the  regents  of 
the  university  are  the  trustees.  Copies  of  them,  certified 
under  the  hand  of  the  secretary  and  the  seal  of  the  Board 
of  Regents,  may  be  read  in  evidence  in  the  courts  of 
New-York  with  the  same  force  and  effect  as  the  originals. 
Those  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Privy  Council  relative  to 
the  laws  of  New- York,  now  at  Albany,  are  in  the  form  of 
manuscript  orders  in  council,  several  of  which  are  now 
published  for  the  first  time.  The  residue  remain  in  the 
Public  Record  Office  in  London,  where  office  copies  may 
be  obtained,  as  was  done  in  the  contest  over  the  succes- 
sion to  the  Lauderdale  peerage.  At  the  time  the  State  of 
New-York  published  the  English  documents  then  deemed 
important  to  illustrate  the  history  of  the  State,  the  colonial 
papers,  including  the  proceedings  of  the  Privy  Council 
relative  to  the  laws  of  New-York,  lay  at  the  old  State 
Paper  Office;  but  in  1861,  on  the  amalgamation  of  the 


Cll 


PARLIAMENTARY  PROCEDURE. 


various  record  depositories  in  London,  they  were  re- 
moved to  the  Public  Record  Office,  their  present  place 
of  custody.  On  arrival  there,  the  former  arrangement 
and  numbering  preserved  in  the  publications  of  the  State 
of  New-York  were  totally  changed,  and,  unfortunately, 
no  exact  reference  to  the  old  numbering  was  retained 
by  the  custodians;  so  that  at  the  present  day  the  utmost 
difficulty  is  experienced  in  identifying  any  particular  pa- 
per by  the  reference  to  it  contained  in  the  edition  of  the 
"Documents  relating  to  the  Colonial  History  of  the  State 
of  New-York"  published  by  the  State  of  New- York. 

The  parliamentary  procedure  of  the  Legislature  of 
New -York  at  the  time  the  acts  contained  in  the  present 
volume  were  passed,  was  not  dissimilar  to  the  methods  fol- 
lowed in  bicameral  legislatures  of  the  Anglican  type  the 
world  over.  It  was  founded  on  what  is  known  as  the  com- 
mon law  of  parliament,  or  on  that  body  of  orderly  rules 
which  had  grown  up  in  England  and  proved  so  useful 
to  legislative  bodies  in  general.  These  rules  acted  as 
a  minor  limitation  on  the  proceedings  of  the  Assembly. 
The  major  limitation  on  their  power  was  that  contained  in 
the  commission  granting  a  representative  form  of  govern- 
ment; it  was  always  to  the  effect  that  the  legislation  of 
the  Assembly  must  be  agreeable,  as  near  as  might  be, 
"to  the  Laws  and  Statutes  of  the  Kingdom  of  England."1 
The  journals  of  both  houses  of  the  New-York  Legislature 
subsequent  to  the  year  1691  have  been  published.  The 
minutes  of  several  sessions  of  the  lower  house  are,  how- 
ever, missing.  The  proceedings  of  the  Provincial  Leg- 
islative Council  in  reference  to  the  acts  in  the  present 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  Ill, 
624. 


Journal  of 
the  Council, 
xxxi. 


1  Since  the  revolt  of  the  American  colo- 
nies, the  entire  administration  of  the  other 
British  colonies  has  been  modernized  and 
changed.    No  law  of  a  colonial  legislature 


is  now  void  because  in  conflict  with  the  com- 
mon law  of  England;  but  otherwise  when 
it  conflicts  with  a  statute  of  parliament  ex- 
tending to  that  colony. 


Todd's 
Par.  Govt. 
Brit.  Col., 
24. 


cm 


LAWS  OPERATIVE  UNTIL  DISALLOWED. 


Intro,  to 

Journal 

of  the 

Legislative 

Council, 

xxvi. 


People  ex  rel 
McDonald 
v .  Keeler 
Sheriff,  32 
Hun,  563. 

Journal  of 
Assembly, 
15  and  22 
October, 
1708:  I, 
233,  236. 


p.  cv  infra. 


volume  may  therefore  be  readily  ascertained,  but  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Assembly  are  not  so  complete  for  this 
period.  When  bills  introduced  had  been  formally  ap- 
proved by  both  legislative  houses,  and  assented  to  by 
the  Governor,  their  operation,  until  they  were  disallowed 
or  repealed  by  the  King,  was  as  absolute  within  the  ter- 
ritory of  New- York  as  was  that  of  an  act  of  parliament 
in  England,  although  the  Assembly  could  not  claim  the 
prescriptive  or  independent  jurisdiction  of  parliament,  but 
owed  its  energy  to  the  crown's  franchise  alone.  The 
extent  of  the  power  of  the  Assembly  of  New- York  to 
punish  contempts  of  its  authority  has  been  questioned, 
without  reference  to  the  instance,  in  1708,  of  Christopher 
Den,  who  was  vigorously  punished  by  command  of  the 
Assembly. 

Having  now  completed  an  outline  of  the  situation  of 
the  province  down  to  the  year  1694,  further  commentary 
on  the  laws  in  this  volume  is  reserved  for  the  "  Notes  and 
Observations,"  which,  it  is  hoped,  may  prove  not  altogether 
useless  to  those  who  have  occasion  to  examine  this  work. 


civ 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  ACTS 
CONTAINED  IN  THE  VOLUME  OF  LAWS.1 


i. 


"An  Aft  for  the  qtiieting  and  fettling  the  D  if  orders  that  have  Laws,  p.  i. 
lately  happened  withiti  this  Province,  and  for  the  eflablishing  and 
fecuring  their  Majeflies  prefent  Government  againfl  the  like  Dif 
orders  for  the  future."  This  act  was  undoubtedly  intended  by 
the  legislature  as  an  explicit  and  formal  acknowledgment  of  the 
change  in  the  succession  to  the  crown,  and  as  an  abjuration  of 
the  royal  house  of  Stuart.  Its  condemnation  of  the  usurpation  HfctVrov. 
of  power  over  their  Majesties'  subjects  was  directed  against  the    of  N-  Y-> 

J     •    •  •  r  t        i    i •   ,  t     i  ,     ,  ii  ,         edition  of 

administration  of  Jacob  Leisler.    It  happened  that  the  clause  mak-  1829, 1,  99. 

ing  it  treason  punishable  according  to  the  laws  of  England  "  to 

disturb  the  peace  good  and  quiet  of  their  Majesties  government 

by  force  of  arms  or  otherways"  had  been  much  promoted  by 

Colonel  Nicholas  Bayard,  who  was  afterward  indicted,  convicted,  st°"eej'rials 

and  sentenced  to  be  drawn  and  quartered  under  this  very  act.    In  XIV,  471. 

the  reign  of  Queen  Anne,  the  Assembly  were  recommended  to  Smith'sHist. 

fe  '  J  _  Prov.  of 

repeal  the  clause  under  which  Colonel  Bayard  had  been  convicted.    N.Y.,  1,144. 


2. 


"An  Aft  for  Eflablishing  Courts  of  Judicature  for  the  Eafe  and  Laws,  p  2. 
Benefit  of  each  refpective  City,  Town  and  County  within  this  Prov- 
ince." This  act  provided  an  entirely  new  judicial  establishment 
for  the  province.  It  prescribed  the  jurisdiction  of  the  justices  of 
the  peace,  erected  courts  of  sessions  of  the  peace,  courts  of  com- 
mon pleas  for  counties,  and  a  supreme  court  for  the  province,  hav- 
ing cognizance  of  all  pleas — civil,  criminal,  and  mixt — as  fully 

1  All  the  acts  passed  by  the  various  Assemblies  of  the  Province  of  New-York  were,  on  10  December, 
1828  (c.  20  N.  Y.  Laws  of  1828-29),  abrogated  as  far  as  possible. 


8 


cv 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LAWS. 


Clark's 
Colonial 
Law,  52. 


MS.  roll, 
State 
Library, 
Albany : 
Appendix 
No.  IV.,  2  R. 
L.  of  N.  Y., 
anno  1 8 13. 


Supra,  p.liii. 

Smith's 
Hist.  Prov.  of 
N.  Y.,edit. : 
1829,  I,  102. 
Cf.  ibid., 
L98; 

60  N.Y.,68. 


See  note  36, 
infra. 


to  all  intents  as  the  Courts  of  King's  Bench,  Common  Pleas,  and 
Exchequer  in  England.  In  many  others  of  the  transmarine  posses- 
sions of  England,  the  jurisdiction  of  these  great  common  law  courts 
of  England  were  transferred  to  some  one  colonial  court  of  law 
variously  entitled.  The  Supreme  Court  of  New-York,  wholly 
created  by  this  act,  was  given  also  a  superintending  jurisdiction, 
similar  to  that  of  the  King's  Bench  in  England,  over  the  inferior 
law  courts  of  the  province  in  matters  involving  above  the  value 
of  twenty  pounds.  This  act  also  conferred  on  the  judges,  or 
justices,  of  all  the  courts  of  record  the  power  to  establish  rules  of 
court  for  the  more  orderly  proceedings  and  practising  in  their  said 
courts.  It  virtually  repealed  an  act  of  the  first  Assembly,  entitled 
"An  act  to  settle  Courts  of  Justice,"  passed  i  November,  1683, 
which  had  erected,  among  other  courts,  the  "Court  of  Oyer  and 
Terminer,"  having  general  jurisdiction  of  common  law  cases.  The 
Court  of  Oyer  and  Terminer  had  taken  the  place  of  the  Court  of 
Assizes,  which  was  dissolved  by  an  act  passed  29  October,  1684. 
Smith,  the  historian  of  the  province,  inconsistently  says  that  as  the 
act  of  1683  was  a  perpetual  act,  and  the  act  of  1691  a  temporary 
law,  "it  may  hereafter  be  disputed,  as  it  has  been  already,  whether 
the  present  establishment  of  our  Courts  can  consist  even  with  the 
preceding  act  or  the  general  rules  of  law."  Yet  he  had  before 
said  that  the  acts  of  1683  "are  for  the  most  part  rotten,  defaced 
or  lost" — a  statement  adopted  to  some  extent  by  the  courts  of 
New- York  in  this  century.  This  act  of  1691  was  from  time  to 
time  extended,  and  the  courts  continued  by  several  ordinances  of 
the  Governor  promulgated  under  the  express  authority  of  a  clause 
in  his  commission.  The  judicial  establishment  of  New- York, 
created  by  this  act,  and  continued  by  the  ordinances  mentioned, 
was  recognized  by  the  State  constitution  of  1777,  and  with  very 
slight  modifications  became  part  of  the  new  order  of  things  under 
the  republic. 

The  attempt  to  refer  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Court  of  Chancery  of 
New-York  to  this  act  has,  in  this  century  as  well  as  in  the  last, 
occasioned  some  dispute  among  chancery  lawyers  of  New- York. 
The  act  entitled  "An  act  to  settle  Courts  of  Justice,"  passed 
1  November,  1683,  contained  this  clause:  "That  there  shall  be 
a  Court  of  Chancery  within  this  Province  which  said  Court  shall 
have  power  to  hear  and  determine  all  matters  of  equity  and  shall 
bee  esteemed  and  accounted  the  Supreme  Court  of  this  Province." 
The  late  Judge  Hoffman  was  disposed  to  regard  this  act  of  1  No- 


cvi 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LAWS. 


vember,  1683,  as  a  perpetual  act,  and  the  basis  of  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  Court  of  Chancery  recognized  by  the  State  constitution  of  1777, 
notwithstanding  the  resolution  of  the  Assembly  in  1691.  His 
argument  is  well  fortified  by  reason  and  citations  of  authority. 
Smith,  the  historian  of  the  province,  is,  however,  silent  on  this 
very  important  point. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  operation  of  this  act  was  temporary, 
but  its  operation  was  extended  for  two  years  by  "An  act  for  the 
Establishing  Courts  of  Judicature,"  etc.,  contained  in  this  volume, 
and  longer,  as  subsequently  explained.  The  course  of  appeals 
prescribed  by  this  act  only  conformed  to  the  constitution  of  the 
province  as  expressed  in  the  commissions  from  the  crown  to  the 
royal  governors  of  New-York.  Paine  and  Duer  regard  this  as 
the  most  important  act  of  the  session,  but  they  misconceived 
its  scope  and  duration. 


Hoffman's 

Treatise  on 

Chancery 

Practice, 

I,  pp.  6-19; 

supra, 

p.  lxxviii. 


Laws,  p.  6. 


Laws,  p.  64 ; 
infra, 
note  24; 
Laws,  pp. 
5,6. 


Practice, 

n,  715 ; 

infra, 
note  24. 


3- 

"An  Acl  for  the  Settling,  Quieting  and  Confirming  unto  the 
Cities,  Towns,  Mannours  and  Freeholders  within  this  Province, 
their  feveral  Grants,  Patents  and  Rights  refpec lively."  This  act  is 
ascribed  by  the  historian  Smith 1  to  a  desire  to  get  rid  of  contro- 
versies then  made  in  reference  to  such  patents  and  grants.  The 
real  design  of  the  act  was  to  confirm  and  ratify  the  patents  and 
grants  made  under  the  royal  house  of  Stuart.  In  this  connection 
it  should  be  observed  that  a  similar  enactment  in  the  first  constitu- 
tion of  the  State  of  New-York  saving  all  former  crown  grants  was 
much  condemned  because  it  was  thought  to  be  made  exclusively 
in  the  interest  of  the  great  patentees  of  the  province.  The  Duke's 
Laws  and  an  Act  passed  2  November,  1683,  had  already  legis- 
lated on  a  like  subject  prior  to  the  year  1691. 


Laws,  p.  6. 

Hist,  of 
N.Y.,I,  102; 
id.,  II,  25. 
People  v . 
Livingston, 
8  Barbour, 
293- 

See  N.  Y. 
Daily 

Advertiser,  4 
March,  1789, 
"  Beware  of 
Lawyers. " 

Title, 

Possession, 
"An  act  of 
Settlement." 


"An  A  el  for  the  enabling  each  refpective  Town  within  this  Prov-    Laws,  p.  7. 
ince  to  Regulate  their  Fences  and  Highways,  and  make  prudential 
Orders  for  their  Peace  and  orderly  Improvements."  This  act  was  not 
the  first  law  on  the  subjects  indicated  in  its  title,  even  under  the 
English  rule,  while  the  towns  of  New  Netherland  had  been  recog- 

1  Hereafter  the  references  to  Smith's  History  of  the  Province  of  New- York  are  to  the  pagination 
of  the  American  edition  of  1829,  and  not  to  that  of  the  London  edition  of  1 767. 


8* 


CVll 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LAWS. 


Laws  and 
Ord.of  New 
Neth.,  42 ; 
Denton  v. 
Jackson,  2 
Johns.,  Ch. 
320. 


Duke's 
Laws, 
titles, 
Town- 
ships, 
Votes. 


Title,  "Cat- 
tle Corn 
Fields 
Fences "  ; 
see  "  The 
Town  of 
the  Duke's 
Laws," 
JohnsHop- 
kinsUniver- 
sityStudies, 
etc.,  extra 
volume  IV, 
105. 


nized  by  the  Dutch  as  political  units  prior  to  1664.  For  example, 
as  early  as  November,  1644,  a  charter  was  granted  to  the  town  of 
Hempstead,  on  Long  Island,  "with  power  to  establish  civil  ordi- 
nances amongst  themselves."  The  following  10  October,  1645,  the 
town  of  Flushing  was  organized  with  like  power.  But  the  towns 
of  New  Netherland  appear  to  have  been  organized  on  a  principle 
of  subinfeudation.  The  authorities  of  the  West  India  Company 
never  divested  themselves  of  the  conception  that  their  own  organi- 
zation was  based  on  the  principles  of  a  seigniorial  fief;  and  in  or- 
ganizing all  subordinate  political  organizations,  the  West  India 
Company  effected  this  leading  idea  of  their  own  existence  by 
making  the  towns  sub-fiefs,  even  to  the  extent  of  conferring  the 
privileges  of  "hunting,  hawking,  fishing  and  fowling"  within  the 
limits  of  the  towns.  When  the  English  reorganized  the  province 
in  1664  on  the  basis  of  the  Duke's  Laws,  they  gave  the  existing 
towns  a  more  distinctly  communal  or  corporate  character,  con- 
trolled by  the  votes  of  the  resident  freeholders  and  the  householders, 
with  power  generally  to  "ordain  such  or  so  many  peculiar  constitu- 
tions as  are  Necessary  to  the  welfare  and  Improvement  of  their 
Towne."  By  an  amendment  to  the  Duke's  Laws,  the  town  laws 
in  force  under  the  Dutch  before  the  conquest  of  1664  were  ordered 
to  be  brought  into  the  next  Court  of  Assizes,  to  be  confirmed, 
altered,  or  amended. 

Fences  had  been  regulated  by  the  laws  of  New  Netherland. 
Under  the  English,  the  fences  about  common  fields  were  by  the 
Duke's  Laws  to  be  kept  in  repair  by  all  persons  interested  in  the 
common  field.  In  1684  an  act  was  passed,  entitled  "A  Bill  con- 
cerning cattle  corne  ffields  and  ffences,"  which  empowered  "any 
Towne  within  this  province  "  to  make  "  Laws  and  Ordinances  "  con- 
cerning "  fenceing  their  feild  and  meadows,"  provided  such  laws 
were  not  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  this  province  and  be  confirmed 
by  the  next  Court  of  Oyer  and  Terminer. 


5- 

Laws,  p.  8.  "An  Acl  for  Defraying  of  the  Publick  and  Necejfary  Charge 
throughout  this  Province,  a?id  for  maintaining  the  Poor,  and  pre- 
venting Vagabonds."  This  act  empowered  each  county  within  the 
province  to  establish  poor-rates  and  levy  taxes  for  the  same.  It 
will  be  observed  that  this  act  to  some  extent  recognizes  the  county 


cviii 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LAWS. 


as  an  existing  political  subdivision,  or,  in  other  words,  it  treats  the 
"Act  to  divide  this  Province  and  Dependencyes  into  Shires  and 
Countyes,"  passed  i  November,  1683,  as  yet  in  force,  notwithstand- 
ing the  resolution  of  1691. 

This  act  recognizes  the  custom  of  England  and  the  adjacent 
colonies  to  provide  for  the  poor,  but  without  reference  to  the  "Poor 
Laws"  of  New  Netherland.  By  an  ordinance  of  22  October,  1661, 
the  Director- General  and  Council  of  New  Netherland  had  ordered 
that  on  every  Sunday  alms  should  be  collected  for  the  poor  in 
the  villages,  and  "something  laid  up  for  the  Poor  and  Needy." 
There  were  other  Dutch  laws  on  the  same  subject.  The  Duke's 
Laws  of  1664  continued,  as  a  town  charge,  the  support  of  the  poor. 
The  Dongan  Assembly,  on  1  November,  1683,  by  "An  Act  for 
the  defraying  of  the  publique  and  necessary  charge  of  each  re- 
spective Citty  Towne  and  County  throughout  This  province  and 
for  maintaining  the  poor  and  preventing  vagabonds,"  directed  every 
county,  city,  town,  parish,  and  precinct  of  New- York  to  make  pro- 
vision for  the  maintenance  and  support  of  their  poor.  The  act  of 
1683  was  virtually  repealed  by  the  act  contained  in  this  volume, 
and  the  support  of  the  poor  was  again  made  a  town  charge  only. 
Many  of  the  provisions  of  both  acts  are  almost  identical  in  phra- 
seology:  the  legislature  of  1691-94  had  all  the  acts  of  1683-85 
before  them.  This  act  also  relates  to  settlement  and  commorancy, 
and  required  all  immigrants  not  having  a  visible  estate  or  manual 
occupation,  before  being  admitted  inhabitants  of  the  province,  to 
give  sufficient  surety  that  they  would  not  become  public  charges. 
These  provisions  were  taken  from  the  act  of  1683.  Both  the  act 
of  1683  and  this  act  excepted  all  those  who  had  manual  crafts 
or  occupations,  provided  they  made  application  eight  days  after 
arrival  to  the  authorities.  The  provision  which  required  masters 
of  vessels  to  give  security  for  immigrants,  etc.,  was  taken  from  the 
act  of  1  November,  1683. 


Supra, 
p.  Ixxviii. 


Laws,  p.  9. 


Laws  of  New 
Neth.,  411. 

Ibid,  passim. 


Laws,  p.  8. 


Laws,  p.  9. 


Cf.  13  and  14 
Car.II.,c.  12. 


Laws,  p.  10. 


"An  Acl  for  fettling  the  Militia."  This  act  was  not  more  strin-  Laws,  p.  10 
gent  in  many  of  its  provisions  than  were  the  prior  laws  of  New- 
York  on  this  subject.  The  Duke's  Laws  had  required  every  male 
person  above  the  age  of  sixteen  years,  except  justices,  sheriffs,  high 
constables,  and  under  sheriffs,  petty  constables,  ministers,  school- 
masters, chirurgeons,  and  some  others,  to  duly  attend  all  military 
exercises  when  required  and  warned  by  their  officers.    The  latter 


Title,  Mili- 
tary Affairs. 


Cix 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON   THE  LAWS. 


Duke'sLaws, 
title,  Mili- 
tary Affairs. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  Ill, 
260. 

Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.Y.,IV, 
185. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  Ill, 
333- 

Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  Ill, 
371,  379. 


Hallam's 
Constitu- 
tional Hist. 
England,  II, 
128,  134. 

Institutes  of 
English 
Public  Law, 
415. 


Memorial 
History  of 
New-York, 
IV,  263. 


were  commissioned  by  the  Governor  on  the  nomination  of  the 
constable  and  overseers  of  the  towns.  "General  training"  for  the 
whole  province  was  required  once  in  two  years,  and  for  the  ridings 
of  Yorkshire  yearly.  Every  town  must  have  four  days  in  each 
year  for  training  among  themselves.  On  16  April,  1678,  Governor 
Andros  reported  that  the  militia  of  New-York  "  is  about  2000  of 
wch  about  140  horse  .  .  .  ,  ordered  and  exercised  according  to 
law."  In  1693  the  militia  in  New- York  numbered  about  3000.  A 
bill  for  the  settlement  of  the  militia  passed  24  October,  1684,  in 
terms  amended  the  Duke's  Laws,  but  left  most  of  their  provi- 
sions in  force.  The  amended  act  made  the  nomination  and  pres- 
entation of  the  officers  of  the  militia  dependent  on  the  choice  of  the 
freeholders.  When  Duke  of  York,  James  had  vested  his  Governor 
of  New- York  with  the  power  of  appointing  officers  of  the  militia. 
Subsequent  to  the  Duke's  accession,  the  mode  of  appointment 
seems  to  have  been  left  indeterminate,  at  least  sufficiently  so  as  to 
account  for  the  act  of  1684,  vesting  the  power  of  nomination  in 
the  freeholders.  The  provisions  of  this  last-named  act,  if  com- 
pared with  the  various  acts  relative  to  the  militia,  passed  in  Eng- 
land immediately  after  the  Restoration,  when  the  militia  was  reor- 
ganized, will  be  found  interesting  to  any  treatise  dealing  with  the 
historical  phase  of  a  citizen  soldiery.  The  abolition  of  military 
tenures  in  England  in  1660  had  led  to  a  change  in  the  whole  basis 
of  the  English  militia.  The  conflict  with  parliament  in  the  time 
of  King  Charles  I.,  relating  to  the  extent  of  the  prerogative  of 
appointing  officers  in  the  militia,  was  the  grand  question  on  which 
the  quarrel  finally  rested.  The  English  acts  relative  to  the  militia 
passed  after  the  Restoration  have  been  carefully  collected  by  David 
Nasmith,  a  barrister  of  the  Inner  Temple.  By  the  acts  13  and  14 
Car.  II.,  c.  3,  and  15  Car.  II.,  c.  4,  every  man  who  possessed  five 
hundred  pounds  a  year  from  land,  or  six  thousand  pounds  of 
personal  estate,  was  bound  to  equip,  provide,  and  pay,  at  his  own 
charge,  one  horseman.  Every  man  who  had  fifty  pounds  a  year 
in  rents,  or  six  hundred  pounds  of  personal  estate,  was  charged 
with  one  pikeman  or  musketeer ;  smaller  proprietors  joined  to- 
gether were  required  to  furnish  a  horse-soldier  or  a  foot-soldier. 
The  King's  power  of  keeping  the  militia  under  arms  was,  how- 
ever, limited  to  fourteen  days. 

There  is  an  outline  of  the  militia  laws  of  New-York  by  General 
Emmons  Clark.  But  the  various  historians  of  the  Province  of 
New- York  have  not  usually  given  this  period  the  most  exhaustive 


cx 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LAWS. 


treatment,  if  we  consider  that  the  Duke's  Laws  of  1664  were  en- 
acted so  soon  after  the  Restoration  and  the  reform  in  the  English 
militia  system  as  to  afford  interesting  data  for  a  comparison  of 
certain  institutions  of  England  with  those  of  New -York.  The 
reservation  of  the  choice  of  officers  to  the  freeholders  of  New- 
York,  contained  in  the  act  of  1684,  was  a  somewhat  important 
step  toward  freer  government,  if  we  consider  that  at  that  period  in 
England  they  were  named  by  the  lord  lieutenant  of  the  county — 
the  immediate  representative  of  the  crown.  This  act  does  not 
appear  to  regulate  the  appointment  of  officers.  Nor  did  the  com- 
mission and  the  instructions  of  Governor  Sloughter  apparently 
determine  the  manner  of  the  choice  of  officers. 

This  act,  it  will  be  observed,  requires  obedience  of  the  militia 
when  in  arms  to  the  laws  and  articles  of  war  established  by  the 
Governor,  with  the  advice  of  a  general  council  of  war,  and  extends 
the  jurisdiction  of  a  court  martial  even  to  acts  of  revenge  done 
when  the  offender  was  not  under  arms.  Even  this  subjection  of 
the  military  courts  in  New- York  to  the  laws  and  articles  of  war,  to 
some  extent  probably  reflects  the  influence  of  the  English  statute 
known  as  the  Mutiny  Act,  which  afforded  the  first  regular  recog- 
nition of  the  "  articles  and  military  laws  "  of  Gustavus  Adolphus 
and  the  Dutch  military  code  of  Arnhem.  But  this  entire  subject 
is  one  susceptible  of  independent  treatment,  at  once  profound  and 
instructive  in  competent  hands.  By  the  English  acts  passed  after 
the  Restoration,  the  King  remained  sole  captain-general  of  the 
forces.  Justices  of  the  peace  were  authorized  to  inflict  slight  pen- 
alties for  breach  of  discipline  by  the  militia,  and  only  when  the 
train-bands  were  called  out  against  an  enemy  were  they  subject  to 
the  rigor  of  martial  law.  The  Duke's  Laws  clearly  gave  too  much 
power  to  the  military  courts  to  be  in  keeping  with  the  English 
constitution  after  the  Restoration.  This  act  would  seem  also  to 
have  extended  the  power  of  courts  martial  too  far. 

The  proceedings  of  a  "  Court  of  Lieutenancy  "  for  the  city  and 
county  of  New- York,  between  1686  and  1696,  appear  in  the 
printed  collections  of  the  New-York  Historical  Society. 


Laws,  p.  10. 

Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  Ill, 
623,  685. 

Laws,  p.  10. 


1  William 
and  Mary, 
c.  5. 


De  Lolme's 
Constitution, 
of  England, 
458;  Doc. 
rel.  Col. 
Hist.  N.  Y., 
IV,  426. 


Collections 
for  1880,  pp. 
391-458. 


7- 

"  An  Acl  declaring  what  are  the  Rights  &  Priviledges  of  Their    Laws,  p.  15. 
Majejlies  Subjecls  inhabiting  within  Their  Province  of  New-York" 
passed  13  May,  1691.    This  is  the  most  widely  known  of  all  the 

cxi 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LAWS. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  Ill, 
348,  351. 
357,  370. 


Smith's  Hist. 
Prov.  of 
N.  Y., 

I,  102; 
Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  IV, 
263  ; 
Butler's 
Outlines, 
Consti- 
tutional 
Hist,  of 
N.  Y.,  40, 
41 ;  and 
Appendix 

II,  infra. 

Doc.  rel. 
Col  Hist. 
N.Y.,III, 
624. 

Title, 
Votes;  cf. 
Humbert  v. 
Trinity 
Church,  24 
Wendell, 
625. 


acts  contained  in  this  volume,  for  it  has  been  the  subject  of  much 
comment  on  the  part  of  the  historians  and  the  annalists  of  the 
province,  while  some  of  its  provisions  are  not  infrequently  passed 
on  by  the  courts  of  justice  even  in  our  own  day.  In  any  con- 
sideration of  this  act  it  should  always  be  inquired  whether  many 
of  its  provisions  were  not  cumulative,  declarative,  or  entirely  super- 
erogatory. The  act  itself,  like  its  predecessor,  the  celebrated  "Char- 
ter of  Libertys"  of  1683,  was  finally  vetoed  by  the  crown,  but 
without  seriously  curtailing  the  liberties  of  the  people,  or  altering 
the  constitution  of  the  province,  already  settled  on  the  basis  of  the 
English  public  law.  That  the  allowance  of  this  act  by  the  crown 
would  have  finally  settled  the  constitution  of  the  province  cannot 
rightly  be  claimed,  for  there  would  have  then  remained  the  juris- 
diction of  the  parliament  of  England  to  be  dealt  with — an  element 
far  more  powerful  for  evil  ,  to  the  liberties  of  the  province  than  the 
diminishing  prerogatives  of  the  distant  prince  of  this  province, 
"  eodem  tempore  rex  alterins  populi."  This  act  is  modeled  on  the 
"Charter  of  Libertys"  of  1683,  which  was  passed  by  the  Dongan 
Assembly  under  the  lord  proprietor.  The  "Charter  of  Libertys" 
was,  after  some  consideration,  rejected  when  James  had  ascended 
the  throne. 

(a)  The  clause  of  the  "Charter  of  1683,"  to  the  effect  that  the 
legislative  authority  shall  "forever  be  and  reside  in  a  Governor, 
Councell  and  the  people  met  in  General  Assembly,"  was  perhaps 
the  first  distinct  enunciation  in  all  history  of  the  abstract  right  of 
the  people  at  large  to  share  in  their  own  government.  In  this 
particular  it  was  a  remarkable  instrument.  These  great  words  are 
in  substance  repeated  in  the  act  in  this  volume,  which  also  was  dis- 
allowed by  the  King.  Though  disallowed  by  the  King,  the  leading 
provisions  of  this  act  were  constantly  recognized  as  otherwise  in 
force  throughout  the  entire  period  of  the  crown  government. 

(p)  The  clause,  "  That  every  freeholder  within  this  Province  and 
Freeman  in  any  corporation  shall  have  his  free  choice  and  vote," 
etc.,  was,  in  so  far  as  the  freeholders  were  concerned,  already  the 
law.  Whether  the  chartered  freemen  of  the  cities,  unless  as  free- 
holders, were  so  eligible  without  this  act,  is  another  question.  This 
act  restricted  the  franchise  to  freeholders  of  forty  shillings  per 
annum.  The  Duke's  Laws  of  1664  permitted  householders  to  vote 
in  town  affairs — a  very  early  extension  of  the  franchise.  Although 
this  act  conferred  the  franchise  on  the  freemen  of  the  cities, — 
Albany  and  New- York, —  yet  the  first  State  constitution  of  1777 


cxu 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LAWS. 


neglected  to  make  a  "freeman"  of  these  cities  eligible  for  the 
office  of  Governor  of  the  State  unless  he  were  at  the  same  time 
a  freeholder — a  great  oversight. 

(j)  Others  of  the  provisions  relating  to  the  rights  of  the  people, 
contained  in  this  act,  were  taken  from  Magna  Charta,  the  Petition 
of  Right,  and  the  English  statutes  relative  to  the  abolition  of  the 
military  or  feudal  tenures,  notwithstanding  such  provisions  were 
part  of  that  law  of  England  already  imposed  on  the  province  in 
the  most  binding  and  conclusive  manner.  With  these  provisions, 
entirely  unobjectionable  in  themselves,  were  blended  privileges  to 
the  members  of  the  Assembly  as  such,  which  were  deemed  by  the 
Lords  of  Trade  "too  great";  and  so  the  act  was  finally  disallowed. 

(8)  The  clause  of  this  act  relative  to  all  lands  within  the  prov- 
ince being  esteemed  lands  of  freehold  and  inheritance  in  free 
and  common  socage  according  to  the  tenor  of  East  Greenwich, 
was  simply  declarative,  inartificial,  and  unnecessary.  It  recalls 
Lord  Bellomont's  observation  in  the  year  1701:  "Nobody  here 
understands  the  drawing  an  act  of  assembly." 

(e)  The  clause  of  this  act,  "No  Estate  of  a  Feme  Covert  shall 
be  sold  or  conveyed,  but  by  Deed  acknowledged  by  her  in  some 
Court  of  Record,  the  Woman  being  secretly  examined,  if  she  doth 
it  freely,  without  threats  or  compulsion  of  her  Husband,"  has 
been  frequently  cited  in  this  century  by  the  courts  of  New-York. 
The  Duke's  Laws  had,  in  1664,  required  all  conveyance  of  lands 
to  be  in  writing  under  seal.  They  were  to  be  acknowledged 
before  some  justice  of  the  peace  or  superior  officer  in  the  govern- 
ment, and  recorded  as  in  such  laws  expressed.  No  reference  to  the 
Dutch  law  relative  to  recording  was  made  by  the  Duke's  Laws, 
which  in  terms  provided  that  all  records  of  bargains  and  sales 
within  the  west  riding  should  be  transmitted  to  New-York  "with 
the  fees  ordained  for  the  records."  Clerks  of  courts  of  sessions 
were  to  enter  all  conveyances  of  lands.  The  "  Charter  of  Lib- 
ertys,"  passed  30  October,  1683,  had  contained  the  same  provi- 
sion as  this  act  relative  to  the  conveyance  of  the  estate  of  a  feme 
covert  by  deed  acknowledged  by  her  in  some  court  of  record. 
The  next  act  on  this  subject  was  "  An  act  to  pr'vent  frauds  in 
conveyanceing  of  Lands,"  passed  3  November,  1683.  It  enacted 
that  "noe  grants  deeds  mortgages  or  other  conveyances  whatso- 
ever of  any  Lands  or  Tenements  within  this  province  shall  be  of 
any  force  power  or  validity  in  Law,  unless  the  said  grants  deeds 
mortgages  or  order  conveyances  be  entered  and  recorded  in  the 


Section  xi. 


Laws,  pp. 
17,  18. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  IV, 
263. 

Laws,  p.  18. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  IV, 
830:  id., 
VIII,  325. 

Laws,  p.  18. 

Constantine 
v.  Van 
Winkle,  6 
Hill,  181  ; 
idem,  10  N. 
Y.,  428; 
Jackson  ex 
dem.  v. 
Gilchrist, 
15  Johns. 
Rep.,  113; 
Humbert  v. 
Trinity 
Church,  24 
Wendell, 
625  ;  Albany 
Fire  Ins.  Co. 
v.  Bay,  4N. 
Y.,  1,  24. 

Title,  Con- 
veyances, 
Deeds,  and 
Writings. 


2  R.  L.  N. 
Y.,  anno 
1813, 

Appendix 
No.  II; 
Humbert  v. 
Trinity 
Church,  24 
Wendell, 
625. 


CXIU 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LAWS. 


Register  of  the  County  where  such  Lands  or  tenements  doe  lye 
within  six  months  after  the  day  of  their  respective  dates.  Provided 
alwayes,  and  be  it  further  enacted  by  the  authority  aforesaid,  that 
none  of  the  aforesaid  grants  deeds  mortgages  or  other  convey- 
ances shall  be  entered  or  Recorded  untill  the  party  or  partyes 
who  did  seale  and  deliver  the  same  shall  make  accknowledgement 
thereof  before  some  one  of  his  Majestyes  Justices  of  the  peace  or 
that  the  same  be  by  sufficient  Witnesses  proved  before  the  said 
Justice  of  the  peace  and  certificate  thereof  entered  on  the  back 
side  of  the  said  deed  grant  mortgage  or  other  conveyance."  Then 
followed  an  act  entitled  "A  bill  to  prevent  Deceipt  and  fforgerye," 
passed  23  October,  1684,  which  provided  "That  noe  bargaine  sale 
Mortgage  or  grant  of  any  house  or  Land  within  this  province 
shall  be  holden  good  in  Law  except  the  same  be  done  by  deed  in 
writeing  under  the  hand  and  seale  of  the  Grantor  and  delivery  and 
possession  given  in  part  in  the  name  of  the  whole  by  the  said 
Grantor  or  his  Attorney  soe  authorized  under  hand  and  seale. 
And  unlesse  the  said  Deed  be  acknowledged  by  the  said  Grantor 
before  one  of  the  Judges  of  Oyer  and  Terminer  and  General 
Goale  Delivery  within  one  yeare  after  sealing  thereof  and  Re- 
corded as  is  prescribed  in  an  Act  intitled  An  Act  to  prevent 
frauds  in  conveyanceing  of  Lands  made  this  present  Sessions  of 
Assembly."  On  29  October,  1684,  "A  Bill  concerning  fformer 
Mortgages "  declared,  "  Whereas  It  hath  beene  the  custome  and 
practice  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  this  province  commonly 
called  Dutch  to  use  and  exercise  the  Methods  of  their  owne 
nation  in  Mortgages  of  Lands  houses  and  Tenements  which  is 
not  according  to  the  usage  and  method  of  England  and  the  now 
established  Lawes  of  this  province  Bee  it  enacted  by  the  Governor 
and  Councell  and  Representatives  mett  in  General  Assembly  and 
by  the  authority  of  the  same  That  all  such  mortgages  of  Lands 
houses  and  Tenements  duely  and  Legally  obtained  and  made 
according  to  the  former  customes  of  this  province  before  its 
Restauration  to  his  Matie  and  Royal  Highness  shall  be  deemed 
and  adjudged  in  any  of  the  courts  of  equity  and  courts  of  Record 
within  this  province  as  effectuall  in  Law  and  Right  as  if  according 
to  the  method  and  practice  of  England  or  the  Lawes  now  estab- 
lished. Provided  that  all  such  mortgages  shall  be  sued  or  re- 
newed within  eighteen  months  after  the  Date  of  these  premisses. 
Any  acts  custome  or  usage  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding."  The 
subsequent  law  concerning  acknowledgments  of  deeds  and  instru- 


cxiv 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON   THE  LAWS. 


ments  of  conveyances  in  New- York  prior  to  the  War  of  Indepen- 
dence is  commented  on  in  a  most  instructive  manner  in  a  historical 
pamphlet  by  John  Wallis,  Esq.,  counselor  at  law,  of  New-York. 
This  pamphlet  was  made  for  the  use  of  the  Honorable  David 
Dudley  Field,  in  the  case  of  Van  Winkle  v.  Constantine,  and  a 
copy  is  now  in  the  State  Library  at  Albany.  There  is  also  a 
very  learned  review  of  the  law  relative  to  acknowledgments  in  the 
brief  of  the  Honorable  George  Hoadly,  counsel  for  appellant  in 
the  recent  case  of  Blackman  v.  Riley.  If  this  practice  of  convey- 
ing estates  of  feme  coverts  by  deeds  privately  acknowledged,  was 
not  due  to  a  statute,  it  is  an  instance  very  rare  in  America,  of 
a  law  established  by  custom. 

(C)  The  last  clause  of  the  act  referring  to  matters  of  religion, 
with  the  exception  of  the  proviso  in  reference  to  those  of  the 
"  Romish  Religion,"  was  taken  largely  from  the  "  Charter  of 
Libertys"  of  1683.  Such  proviso  was  not  in  the  last-mentioned 
act,  or  that  act  could  not  have  been  approved,  as  it  was,  by 
Colonel  Dongan,  who  was  of  the  ancient  faith.  Of  the  two  acts, 
the  "Charter  of  Libertys"  was  the  higher  expression  of  religious 
freedom,  and  its  principles  are  those  now  in  force  in  New-York 
by  constitutional  limitation.  When  this  act  was  passed  the  Prov- 
ince shared  in  the  general  excitement  about  the  Roman  Catholics 
and  the  fallen  house  of  Stuart. 


10  N.  Y., 

422. 

138  N.  Y., 
318. 

See  Albany 
Fire  Ins. 
Co.  v.  Bay, 
4N.  Y.,  31, 
32 ;  Collec- 
tions N.  Y. 
Hist.  Soc, 
III,  347. 


8. 


"An  Acl  for  the  Allowance  to  the  Reprefentatives."  This  act 
was  more  important  to  the  members  of  Assembly  than  to  their  con- 
stituents. It  also  established  a  subsequently  notorious  "  mileage  " 
allowance,  as  it  gave  the  representatives  ten  shillings  per  diem, 
"from  their  coming  out  till  their  return  home,"  —  limiting  this 
time  of  going  and  coming,  however,  to  sixteen  days.  Governor 
Fletcher  thought  the  compensation  a  large  allowance ;  but  the 
quantum  of  the  compensation  and  the  traveling  allowance  were 
originally  fixed  by  an  act  passed  31  October,  1683,  entitled  "An 
Act  for  the  allowance  to  Representatives." 


Laws,  p.  19. 


Smith's 
Hist,  of  the 
Prov.  of 
N.  Y.,  1,115. 

MS.  roll, 
State 
Library, 
Albany. 


9- 

"  An  Acl  to  Enable  the  City  and  County  of  A  Ibany  to  defray  their   Laws,  P.  20. 
necejfary  Charge."    This  act  establishes  a  species  of  octroi  on  the 
Indian  trade,  of  which  that  city  was  then  the  center.    The  charter 


cxv 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON   THE  LAWS. 


by  which  the  village  of  Albany  became  a  city  was  signed  by  Gov- 
ernor Dongan,  22  July,  1686.  Under  it  the  mayor  and  the  sheriff 
were  annually  nominated  upon  the  "  ffirst  day  of  St.  Michael  the 
Archangel "  (September  29). 

IO. 


Laws,  p. 
21. 


Hist.  Prov. 
N.  Y.,  I, 
101. 

Supra, 
p.  lxxviii. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  V, 
581,  643. 

Laws,  p.  25. 

Smith's 
Hist.  N.  Y., 
I,  164,  306, 
307 ;  Daw- 
son's "Sons 
of  Liberty," 
30-32;  Mag. 
Am.  Hist., 
Ill,  165  ; 
Laws,  pp. 
21,  25,  26, 
58,  84. 


"An  Acl  for  EJlablishing  a  Revenue  for  the  defraying  the  Pub- 
lick  Charges  of  the  Province."  This  act  was,  by  express  limita- 
tion, contained  in  the  act  itself,  to  remain  in  force  only  two  years 
after  the  publication  thereof.  An  act  conferring  a  permanent 
revenue  on  the  Duke  of  York  and  his  heirs,  entitled  "A  continued 
Bill  for  Defraying  the  Requisite  charges  of  the  Government,"  had 
been  passed  30  October,  1683.  Smith  says  this  gave  a  perpetual 
revenue  to  the  crown,  and  that  a  desire  to  be  rid  of  it  afforded  the 
real  reason  for  the  passage  of  the  resolution  of  1691,  declaring  all 
laws  consented  to  by  the  General  Assembly  under  James  null  and 
void.  Smith  was  undoubtedly  right  in  his  statement  that  the  act 
was  perpetual.1  The  act  of  30  October,  1683,  as  explained  by  an 
act  of  29  October,  1684,  was  undoubtedly  the  basis  of  this  act. 
The  rates  of  duties,  the  scale,  and  the  amount  of  the  excise  are 
substantially  the  same  by  the  provisions  of  both  acts.  Subsequent 
to  1 69 1,  and  prior  to  1720,  the  course  of  legislation  on  the  revenue 
is  indicated  in  Governor  Burnet's  reports  to  the  Lords  of  Trade. 
The  point  of  this  act  was  its  limiting  the  operation  of  the  revenue 
to  two  years.  The  control  which  the  Assembly  came  to  exercise 
in  this  manner  over  the  revenue  of  the  province  was  always 
spirited  and  determined,  involving  them  in  constant  disputes  with 
the  governors  of  the  province.  The  following  act  must  be  read 
in  connection  with  this  act.  The  revenue  was  continued  by  subse- 
quent acts,  for  two  years,  and  then  for  five  years. 


II 


Laws,  p.  26.  "An  A 61  to  enable  his  Excellency  to  defray  his  extraordinary 
Expence,  a?id  to  Indemnifie  the  Collector  and  Receiver  General  for 
the  Receipt  of  feveral  Sums  of  Money  on  pretence  of  Cuflom  and 


Brook- 
haven  v. 
Strong,  60 
N.  Y.,  68. 


1  It  should  be  remarked  here  that  the  acts  of 
the  "  Dongan  Assemblies  "  had  amended  some 
parts  of  the  Duke's  Laws  and  supplemented 
other  parts.  Indeed,  up  to  the  year  1691,  the 
course  of  legislation  in  New-York  is  entirely 


succinct,  orderly,  and  intelligible  on  this  subject 
and  others,  although  not  now  readily  accessible 
owing  to  its  scattered  depositories  and  its  un- 
printed  form. 


cxvi 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LAWS. 


Duty."  This  act  is  to  be  read  in  connection  with  the  foregoing 
act,  as  it  made  the  revenue  collected  payable  into  the  hand  of  the 
Receiver- General  and  issued  by  the  Governor's  warrant.  Captain 
William  Kidd  received  ^150  "for  good  services"  under  this  act. 
The  "services"  were  rendered  in  the  protection  of  the  province 
from  pirates.  Kidd  was  then  a  bold  and  skilful  shipmaster,  pre- 
sumably honest,  and  hailing  regularly  from  the  port  of  New- York. 
On  2  November,  1683,  the  Assembly  had  passed  "An  Act  for  a 
free  and  Voluntary  Present  to  the  Governour,"  which  gave  him  "one 
penny  for  every  pounds  value  of  all  the  reall,  personall  and  visi- 
ble estate  of  all  and  every  the  ffree  holders  and  inhabitants  in  this 
His  Royal  Highnesse  province."  It  gave  the  Receiver- General 
"two  pence  in  the  pound  for  all  moneys  by  him  paid."  The  act 
of  1683  was  to  expire  by  limitation  21  April,  1685.  It  was  rein- 
forced by  an  act  "  ffor  the  more  speedy  and  better  collecting  the 
Governour's  ffree  and  Voluntary  present,"  passed  27  October,  1684. 


Note  10, 
supra. 

Smith's  Hist. 
Prov.  N.  Y., 
I,  101. 


MS.  roll, 
State 
Library, 
Albany, 
N.  Y. 


MS.  roll, 
State 
Library, 
Albany, 
N.  Y. 


12. 


"An  Acl  for  the  raijing  of  two  Thouf and  Pounds  for  paying 
and  defraying  the  Incidental  Charges,  according  to  eflablishment 
of  one  htmdred  Fuzileers,  with  their  proper  Officers,  for  one  whole 
Year."  During  the  entire  war,  which  began  7  May,  1689,  and 
ended  with  the  Peace  of  Ryswick  in  1697,  Albany  was  one  of 
the  chief  points  of  defense  against  the  Canadian  attacks  planned 
by  the  French  under  Count  Frontenac,  in  the  course  of  which  the 
"  Five  Nations"  filled  so  important  a  place.  This  act  formed  part 
of  the  systematic  preparation  made  in  New-York  to  countervail 
and  repel  the  aggressions  and  encroachments  of  the  French  and 
their  Indian  allies  during  "  King  William's  War." 


13- 


Laws,  p.  27. 

Cf.  Papers 
relating  to 
the  Invasion 
of  New-York 
by  the 
French ; 
Doc.  Hist., 
N.Y.,1,285; 
Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,III 
and  IV, 
passim  ; 
Dr.  Shea's 
note  No.  29 
to  Miller's 
N.  Y.  in 
1695. 


"A11  Acl  to  eafe  People  that  are  fcrupidous  in  Swearing" 
This  act  was  intended  for  the  relief  of  the  people  called  Quakers. 
As  early  as  22  February,  1687,  Governor  Dongan  reported  to  the 
Committee  of  Trade  that  there  were  in  New-York  "  abundance  of 
Quakers  preachers  men  and  women  especially  ;  Singing  Quakers ; 
Ranting  Quakers."  The  Quakers  refused  to  take  an  oath.  This 
act  was  repealed  in  1734,  and  indulgence  given  by  Chapter  DCIII 


Laws,  p.  30. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  Ill, 
415  ;  ibid., 
IV,  159;  On- 
derdonck's 
Annals,  Rise 


cxvn 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LAWS. 


and  Growth 
of  Friends 
on  Long 
Island  and 
in  New-York 
City;  Van 
Schaack's 
Laws,DCIII. 


Laws,  p.  31. 

Brodhead's 
History  of 
the  State 
of  New- 
York,  II, 
647. 


of  that  year,  entitled  "An  Act  for  granting  to  the  People  called 
Quakers  residing  within  this  colony,  the  same  privileges,  etc.,  as  the 
People  of  that  Denomination  are  entitled  unto  in  England." 


14. 

"An  Acl  for  Pardoning  fiuh  as  have  been  active  in  the  late  Dif- 
orders."  This  act  was  the  sequel  of  the  disturbances  growing  out  of 
the  administration  of  Jacob  Leisler.  It  excepts  some  persons  who 
had  been  already  attainted  of  treason  and  murder,  and  others  who 
had  been  Leisler's  most  obnoxious  followers.  This  was  the  last  act 
passed  at  the  Assembly's  first  sitting,  which  began  9  April,  1691. 
Its  passage  was  speedily  followed  by  the  execution  of  the  unfor- 
tunate Leisler  and  his  son-in-law  Milborne. 


15- 


Laws,  p.  34. 


Appendix 
No.  II,  infra, 
L.  &  S.,  I, 
c.  LXV. 


"  An  Acl  for  the  Regulating  Damages  done  in  the  time  of  the 
late  Diforders,"  etc.  This  act  forms  the  sequel  to  the  excitement 
which  attended  the  Leisler  episode,  and  constitutes  an  important 
part  of  the  voluminous  literature  of  that  tragedy.  This  act  was 
repealed  19  April,  1699,  by  an  act  of  Assembly. 


Laws,  p.  39. 

MS.  roll, 
State  Li- 
brary, Al- 
bany; 2 
Revised 
Laws  N.  Y., 
anno  1 8 13, 
Appendix 
No.  Ill;  3 
R.  S.,  481. 


Brodhead's 
N.  Y.,  II, 
385,  386. 


16. 

'An  Acl  to  divide  this  Province  and  Dependencies  into  Shires 
and  Counties."  This  act  did  not  create  twelve  new  counties  in 
the  province,  for  the  members  of  this  Assembly  had  been  returned 
as  representatives  for  these  very  counties  mentioned  in  this  act. 
An  act  passed  i  November,  1683,  during  the  proprietary  govern- 
ment, had  divided  the  province  into  the  twelve  counties  of  New- 
York,  Westchester,  Ulster,  Albany,  Duchesses,  Orange,  Richmond, 
Kings,  Queenes,  Suffolke,  Duke's,  and  Cornwall.  Ulster  was  thus 
named  after  the  Duke  of  York's  Irish  earldom ;  Albany  was  the 
second  title  of  the  Duke  of  York ;  Orange  was  called  after  the 
Duke's  son-in-law  and  successor;  Richmond,  it  has  been  said,  was 
so  called  "probably  for  the  King's  natural  son  by  the  Dutchess 
of  Portsmouth."  By  the  act  of  1683,  high  sheriffs  were  to  be  com- 
missioned for  each  of  these  twelve  counties,  and  in  1691  writs  of 
election  were  addressed  to  the  sheriffs  so  created  under  the  act 


cxviii 


NOTES   AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON   THE  LAWS. 


of  1683.  This  act  made  some  trifling  changes  only  in  the  rough 
descriptions  already  contained  in  the  act  of  1683.  It  also  omitted 
the  clause  in  the  act  of  1683  relative  to  the  commissions  to  the 
high  sheriffs  of  the  respective  counties.  Otherwise  the  two  acts 
are  in  almost  the  same  words.  In  the  description  of  Albany 
County,  the  old  Dutch  "Colonie"  of  the  Van  Rensselaers  is  recog- 
nized as  the  manor  of  Rensselaer,  which  is  correct :  the  settle- 
ment had  ceased  to  be  a  mere  "Colonie"  when  made  a  manor  of  the 
English  type,  in  1685.  The  twelve  counties  after  1683  comprised 
the  entire  settled  districts  of  the  province.  The  wilder  country, 
or  those  "territories  depending"  on  New-York,  as  the  description 
ran  in  the  commissions  to  the  governors  of  New- York,  was  not 
embraced  within  the  boundaries  of  any  of  the  counties  —  at  least 
not  until  a  much  later  period  in  the  history  of  New-York.  New 
Netherland  had  embraced  "all  the  tract  of  land,  with  the  islands 
adjacent,  extending  from  the  west  side  of  Connecticut  River  to  the 
lands  lying  on  the  west  side  of  Delaware  Bay ;  all  which  were 
embraced  in  the  Duke  of  York's  grants  from  Charles  II."  Penn- 
sylvania was  not,  however,  included  in  the  Duke's  grants.  The 
grants  from  the  Duke  of  York  to  Lord  Berkeley  and  Sir  George 
Carteret  (23  and  24  June,  1664)  had  taken  away  New  Csesarea, 
or  New  Jersey.  The  Duke  of  York  surrendered  any  claim  to 
Pennsylvania  by  deed  to  William  Penn,  31  August,  1682.  The 
country  west  of  the  Connecticut  River  and  east  of  the  dividing 
line  "run  about  twenty  miles  from  any  part  of  Hudson's  River" 
was  relinquished  to  Connecticut  by  the  commissioners  appointed 
by  the  two  colonies  to  establish  the  eastern  boundaries  of  New- 
York  in  1664.  The  claims  of  Connecticut  to  the  easterly  end 
of  Long  Island  were  surrendered  at  the  same  time.  The  line  was 
subsequently  rectified  in  1683,  and  confirmed  in  1700.  Pemaquid, 
in  Maine,  was  surrendered  to  Massachusetts  on  19  September, 
1686.  Notwithstanding  this  fact,  this  act,  following  too  closely  the 
act  of  1683,  makes  Pemaquid  still  in  the  county  of  Cornwall  and 
Province  of  New-York.  The  island  of  Nantucket,  Martin's  Vine- 
yard, and  Elizabeth  Island,  embraced  in  Duke's  County,  were,  in 
1 69 1,  given  by  the  crown  to  Massachusetts,  leaving  No  Man's 
Land  alone  in  Duke's  County.  No  Man's  Land  in  course  of  time 
seems  to  have  disappeared  with  Duke's  County.  These  cessions 
reduced  the  counties  of  the  province  to  ten  in  number.  In  1757, 
Smith,  the  historian,  confined  his  description  of  the  actual  counties 
of  the  province  to  the  remaining  ten.    Sauthier's  chorographical 


Laws, 
p.  39;  Re- 
gents' Re- 
port of  N.Y. 
Boundaries, 
I,  28,  30. 

Laws,  p.  39. 


Note,  p.  xcvi, 
supra. 


Smith's  Hist. 
Prov.  N.  Y., 
I,  108,  109  ; 
Journal 
N.  Y.  As- 
sembly, I, 
23;  Maga- 
zine Amer. 
Hist.,  VIII, 
24. 

Report  of 
Regents  on 
the  Bounda- 
ries of  the 
State  of 
New -York, 
I,  23; 
Report  on 
N.  Y.  & 
Penna. 
Boundary, 
p.  41. 

Regents' 
Report  on 
Boundaries 
N.Y.,  I, 

24,  58; 
Doc.  Rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  IV, 
628,  630. 

Laws,  p.  40  ; 
Regents'  Re- 
port on 
Boundaries 
of  N.  Y., 
I,  39- 


Appendix, 
Hist.  N.  Y., 
I,  254,  273. 


CXIX 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LAWS. 


p.  113. 

Revised 
Statutes  of 
N.  Y.,  Part 

I,  Chap.  2, 
title  1  ;  3 
R.  S.,  481. 

Dawson's 
Hist.  Mag. 
(3d  series), 

II,  14. 

Spoffbrd's 
Gazetteer, 
69. 


map  shows  the  added  county  lines  of  New-York  about  the  year 
1779,  and  also  the  original  counties,  excepting  Duke's  and  Corn- 
wall, then  already  ceded.  For  the  boundaries  of  the  original 
counties  of  New- York  as  finally  established,  see  De  Lancey's 
"Manors  of  New -York,"  and  the  statutory  description  of  them. 
When  the  constitution  of  1777  was  adopted,  there  were  but  four- 
teen counties :  those  named  in  this  act,  less  those  ceded,  and 
Tryon,  Charlotte,  and  Cumberland.  The  two  last  were  ceded  to 
Vermont.  The  name  "Tryon"  County  was  changed  to  "Mont- 
gomery "  County ;  it  comprised  all  that  portion  of  the  State  lying 
to  the  westward  of  the  river  counties — Albany,  Ulster,  and  Orange. 
In  181 2,  twelve  new  counties  were  carved  out  of  this  great  county. 
In  1820  the  sixteen  counties  existing  in  the  year  1790  had  become 
fifty-five  counties. 


17- 


Laws, 
p.  40. 

Supra. 


"An  Acl  for  the  raijing  and  paying  one  Hundred  and  Fifty 
Men,  to  be  forthwith  raifed,  for  the  Defence  and  Re-inforcement  of 
Albany  for  fix  moneths."    See  note  12. 


18. 


Laws, 
P-  43- 

Supra, 
p.  vii. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  Ill, 
337- 

Laws  and 
Ordinances 
of  New 
Nether- 
land;  In- 
dex, New 
Amster- 
dam. 


"An  Acl  for  the  Regulating  the  Buildings,  Streets,  Lanes, 
Wharffs,  Docks  and  Allyes  of  the  City  of  New- York."  The  city 
of  New-York  was  gradually  developed  from  a  seaport  trading- 
post  and  village  established  about  1623.  At  first  the  village  of 
New  Amsterdam,  it  had,  in  1653,  acquired  from  the  Dutch  West 
India  Company  municipal  privileges  and  a  court  of  justice — to 
consist  of  a  schout,  burgomasters,  and  schepens,  all  well-known 
officers  of  the  Low  Countries,  possessing  ex  vi  termini  established 
jurisdictions,  duties,  and  obligations  by  the  laws  of  Holland  and 
New  Netherland.  The  first  corporate  seal  was  granted  to  New 
Amsterdam  in  the  year  1654,  and  this  date  may  be  said  to  fix  the 
establishment  of  municipal  authority  and  government  in  "  Man- 
hattan Island" — the  more  ancient  geographical  designation  of  the 
city-county;  for  a  city-county  it  remained  until  the  year  1874. 
From  1654  to  1664  a  great  variety  of  ordinances  were  made  con- 
cerning the  police  and  the  improvement  of  New  Amsterdam.  In 
1656  the  streets  appear  to  have  been  set  off  and  laid  out  with  stakes, 
and  a  survey  established.    An  instructive  account  of  the  municipal 


cxx 


NOTES   AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LAWS. 


development  of  New  Amsterdam  is  contained  in  a  very  scholarly 
paper  by  Professor  John  Franklin  Jameson.  Immediately  after 
the  conquest  of  New- York,  27  August,  1664  (old  style),  Colonel 
Nicolls,  deputy  governor  of  the  Duke  of  York,  remodeled  the 
government  of  New  Amsterdam  by  an  ordinance  declaring  "that 
the  inhabitants  of  New -York,  New  Harlem,  and  all  other  his 
Majesty's  subjects,  inhabitants  upon  the  island,  commonly  called 
and  known  by  the  name  of  Manhattan  Island,  are  and  forever  shall 
be  accounted,  nominated  and  established,  as  one  body  politique 
and  corporate,  under  the  government  of  a  Mayor,  Aldermen  and 
Sheriff."  This  ordinance  is  now  known  as  the  first  charter  of  the 
city  of  New-York,  but  it  was  so  meager  that  it  came  to  be  regarded 
as  a  "confirmation"  of  prior  municipal  franchises  and  privileges. 
In  1673  —  74  the  city  was  again  under  the  control  of  the  military 
forces  of  the  States-General,  and  a  quasi-civil  authority  of  the 
Dutch  type  was  restored  under  the  former  designation  of  schout, 
burgomasters,  and  schepens.  Fifteen  months  later  the  city  was 
ceded  again  to  the  English  under  the  Treaty  of  Westminster. 
They  proceeded  to  revive  the  English  civic  administration.  On  9 
May,  1676,  the  corporation  passed  an  ordinance  "that  all  persons 
living  within  the  street,  called  the  Heer  Graft  [Broad  street]  shall 
fill  up  the  Ditch,  Graff,  or  Common  Sewer,  and  make  the  same 
level  with  the  street,  and  then  pave  and  pitch  the  same  before 
their  doors  with  stones,  as  far  as  every  inhabitants  house  shall  be 
fronting  towards  the  said  Graff  or  Ditch,  upon  pain  of  having 
such  fines  inflicted  upon  them  as  the  court  shall  see  fit."  In  1683 
the  city  was  divided  into  wards. 

On  22  April,  1686,  Thomas  Dongan,  under  the  great  seal  of 
the  province,  and  by  virtue  of  his  commission  from  the  lord 
proprietor  of  New-York,  granted  that  charter  to  the  city  which 
is  now  known  as  the  "  Dongan  Charter."  This  was  confirmed 
by  an  act  in  this  volume.  The  legislative  acts  under  the  Dongan 
Charter  relative  to  streets,  lanes,  etc.,  have  been  collated  by  Judge 
Hoffman.  This  act  is  the  principal  one  prior  to  1730.  On  19 
April,  1 708,  the  Dongan  Charter  was  confirmed  by  Lord  Corn- 
bury,  then  the  Governor  of  New-York.  In  1730  the  last  of  the 
city  charters  before  independence  was  finally  granted  by  Governor 
Montgomery.  Chapter  410  of  New- York  Laws  of  1882  gives 
the  present  city  charter  and  the  laws  in  reference  to  the  sub- 
jects mentioned  in  the  act  which  is  the  subject  of  this  note.  The 
history  and  origin  of  the  city  charters  granted  under  English  rule 


Magazine 
Amer. 
Hist., VIII, 
315- 


Supra, 
p.  lviii. 


Laws,  p.  6. 

Treatise 
upon  Rights, 
etc.,  of  the 
CityofN.Y.. 
II,  12. 


City  Charter, 
with  notes, 
etc.,  by  Ex- 
Chancellor 
Kent. 


cxxi 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LAWS. 


are  ably  presented  in  a  second  paper  by  Professor  Jameson. 
The  frame  of  the  present  city  government  of  New- York,  though 
often  amended,  is  of  considerable  antiquity.  Many  of  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  the  corporation  long  antedate  Independence,  and 
the  ancient  charters  are  now  frequently  invoked  in  the  courts  of 
justice  of  the  State  and  county.  This  act  is  discussed  in  Patten 
v.  N.  Y.  Elevated  R.  R.  Co.,  in  Story  v.  same,  and  in  other  cases. 

19. 

"An  Aft  for  the  rai/ing  two  hundred  Men  with  their  proper 
P-  46.  Officers  for  the  fecuring  and  re-inforcing  of  Albany  in  the  Fron- 

Supra.        teers  of  this  Province."    See  notes  12  and  17. 


Magazine 
Amer. 
Hist., 
VIII,  598. 


3  Abbott's 
New  Cases, 
322;  ibid., 
491. 


20. 

Laws,  "An  A  ft  for  the  deflroying  of  Wolves."    Compare  "An  Act  for 

p'  52'  rewarding  of  those  who  destroy  Wolves,"  passed  1  November, 

State1  lu  l6%3>  an<^  laws  °f  New  Netherland.  The  laws  of  New- York  in 
brary,  Ai-     this  century  continued  the  offer  of  rewards  for  the  destruction  of 

bany ;  Laws  , 
and  Ord.  of  wolves. 
New  Neth- 
erland, pp. 

489,  496.  Z  I  • 

Laws,  "An  Aft  for  the  raifing  and  pay  two  hundred  and  twenty  Men 

with  their  proper  Officers,  together  with  the  incidental  Charges 
that  shall  arife  thereon,  for  the  Re-inforcement  and  Security  of  the 
Fronteers  of  this  Province,  at  Albany,  for  7  Months."    See  notes 

Supra.         12,  17,  and  19. 

22. 

Laws,  "An  Act  for  the  raifing  and  paying  of  Eighty  Men  in  Ulster 

p-  57-         a?id  Dutches  County,"  etc.    See  notes  12,  17,  19,  and  21. 


23- 

Laws,  "Aft  for  eflablishing  a  Revenue  upon  their  Majeflies,  and  for 

and58'  defraying  the  publick  and  neceffary  Charges  of  the  Government." 
pp.  2,  84.      Continuation  of  the  former  revenue  act  for  two  years.    See  note  10. 


CXXll 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LAWS. 


24. 


"An  A cl  for  the  EJlablishing  Courts  of  Judicature  for  the  eafe 
and  benefit  of  each  refpective  City,  Town  and  County  within  this 
Province."  This  act  continued  for  two  years  the  judicial  organi- 
zation of  the  province  established  by  the  act  passed  in  1691. 
This  act  makes  some  changes  in  the  sessions  of  the  courts  of 
law,  but  none  in  the  jurisdictions  of  the  several  courts  established 
in  1 69 1.  This  act  was,  on  its  expiration,  again  continued  or  ex- 
tended by  another  act;  and  as  there  is  some  confusion  about  this 
extension  in  the  books  on  the  practice  and  jurisdiction  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of  New-York,  the  manner  in  which 
this  act  was  continued  should  be  now  noticed.  The  former  act, 
passed  6  May,  1691,  established  the  courts  for  two  years,  or  until 
6  May,  1693.  This  act,  passed  9  November,  1692,  continued  the 
courts  for  two  years;  on  24  October,  1695,  the  courts  were  con- 
tinued two  years  longer.  By  an  act  of  21  April,  1697,  the  courts 
were  again  extended  "one  year  longer  after  the  times  mentioned 
in  said  acts  expire  by  their  own  limitation."  Messrs.  Graham  and 
"Paine  &  Duer"  state  that  the  act  of  1697  continued  the  courts 
permanently,  and  was  never  repealed.  This  is  a  singularly  precise 
statement  of  fact,  and  yet  it  contains  a  grave  error  for  a  treatise 
which  justly  recognizes  the  act  of  1691  as  the  "frame  of  our 
judicial  system  as  it  now  exists." 

Owing  to  a  political  dead-lock,  the  act  of  1697  was  allowed  to 
expire  by  limitation  of  time.  On  19  January,  1699,  the  Council 
had  taken  into  consideration  a  clause  of  the  Governor's  commission 
empowering  him  to  establish  courts,  and  ordered  a  proclamation  to 
be  issued  for  the  continuance  of  all  the  courts  until  the  former 
courts  had  been  confirmed  by  the  Assembly.  On  11  April,  1699, 
the  lower  house  passed  a  bill  for  continuing  the  courts  by  act  of 
Assembly.  This  bill  attempted  to  validate  this  ordinance  of  the 
Governor  continuing  the  courts,  and  was,  therefore,  a  reflection  on 
his  commission  under  the  great  seal  of  England  which  empowered 
him  to  do  this  thing.  On  being  sent  up  to  the  Legislative  Council, 
this  bill  was  referred  to  a  committee  consisting  of  the  justices  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  who  reported  adversely  to  it,  because  it  contained 
clauses  repugnant  to  the  common  and  statute  law  of  England.  On 
15  May,  1699,  the  Council  ordered  "that  William  Smith,  Esq., 
Chief  Justice,  John  Guest,  Esq.,  Second  Justice  and  James  Graham, 
Esq.,  Attorney  General  of  this  Province  doe  draw  up  a  scheam  or 


Laws,  p.  64. 


Laws,  p.  2. 


See  note  2  on 
former  act, 
supra. 

Laws,  p.  2 ; 
note  2, 
supra. 

See  MS. 
acts,  State 
Library, 
Albany  ; 
JournalN.  Y. 
Assembly, 
I,  89. 

Practice,  II, 
715;  Gra- 
ham's Juris- 
diction of  the 
N.Y.  Courts, 
137- 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  IV, 
266,  268. 


Council 
Minutes, 
Vol.  8", 
pp.  20,  37. 


cxxiu 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LAWS. 


Council 
Min.,  Vol. 
81,  pp.  114, 
129. 


2  R.  L.  of 
N.  Y.,  anno 
1813,  Ap- 
pendix 
No.  V. 


2  R.  L.  of 
N.  Y.,  anno 
1813,  Ap- 
pendix 
No.  V. 


Laws,  p.  2. 


Laws,  pp. 
2,  64. 

See  Chan- 
cellor 
Jones's 
Commen- 
tary on  R. 
L.  of  1813  ; 
Collections 
N.  Y.  Hist. 
Society  for 
1 821. 

Section  I, 
title  3, 
Chap.  1, 
Part  III, 
R.  S. 

Section 
217,  N.  Y. 
Code  of 
Civil  Pro- 
cedure. 

Laws,  pp. 
2,  64. 

Revised 
Laws  of 
N.  Y.,anno 
1813,  II, 
Appendix 
No.  VII. 


method  for  erecting  the  Courts  of  Judicature  of  this  Province  in 
the  best  manner  and  method  that  may  be."  This  "scheam"  was 
drawn  up  and  laid  before  the  Council,  approved,  and,  on  18  August, 
1699,  ordered  to  be  printed.  It  simply  provided  for  an  ordin- 
ance of  the  Governor  in  Council  instead  of  an  act  of  Assembly. 
It  was  accordingly  issued,  and  entitled  "  An  ordinance  of  His  Ex- 
cellency and  Council  for  the  establishing  Courts  of  Judicature  for 
the  ease  and  benefit  of  each  respective  City,  Town  and  County 
within  the  Province  of  New-York."  At  the  foot  of  the  ordinance 
is  this  underwriting :  "  Pursuant  to  an  order  of  Council  we  do  report 
this  to  be  a  proper  scheam  for  erecting  the  Courts  of  Judicature  of 
the  Province  which  is  humbly  submitted.  W.  Smith,  John  Guest, 
Ja.  Graham."  This  ordinance,  approved  18  August,  1699,  thus  be- 
came the  basis  of  the  common  law  judicial  establishment  on  the 
model  of  the  act  of  1691  ;  but  it  made  no  provision  for  the  Court 
of  Chancery.  On  3  April,  1704,  Lord  Cornbury,  then  Governor 
of  New-York,  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Council,  pub- 
lished an  ordinance  directing  certain  stated  sessions  of  the  Supreme 
Court  to  be  made  by  the  Governor's  proclamation  beforetimes ;  it 
reaffirmed  the  jurisdictions  given  in  the  act  of  1691  and  the  ordi- 
nance of  15  May,  1699.  On  6  August,  1750,  and  in  October,  1760, 
the  sessions  of  the  Supreme  Court  were  somewhat  modified  by 
ordinances  of  the  Governor  in  Council.  On  this  footing  the  judi- 
cial establishment  of  New- York  continued  until  the  War  of  Inde- 
pendence, when,  with  no  change  in  jurisdiction  or  form,  it  was 
adopted  by  the  State  government.  In  1829  the  revisers  of  the 
New-York  Statutes  defined  the  primary  jurisdiction  of  the  existing 
Supreme  Court  as  that  which  belonged  to  the  "  Supreme  Court  of 
the  Colony."  Under  the  constitution  of  1846,  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  Court  of  Chancery  was  transferred  to  the  Supreme  Court ;  but 
the  jurisdiction  at  law  of  the  existing  Supreme  Court,  in  this  year 
1894,  is  still  defined  as  that  of  the  "Supreme  Court  of  the  Colony." 
Thus  it  may  be  seen  that  these  laws  are  still  useful  although  two 
centuries  have  passed  away  since  their  enactment. 

It  has  been  already  stated  that  the  Court  of  Chancery  mentioned 
in  the  acts  of  1691  and  1693  was  not  provided  for  in  the  ordinance 
of  15  May,  1699.  On  2°  August,  1701,  the  Lieutenant-Governor, 
Nanfan,  under  his  commission  issued  an  ordinance  providing  for 
the  court.  In  1  702  it  was,  however,  suspended  until  a  fee  bill  should 
be  settled.  In  1704,  this  being  accomplished,  the  court  was  re- 
vived.   On  the  adoption  of  the  first  State  constitution,  the  Court 


CXX1V 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LAWS. 


of  Chancery  was  recognized  as  one  of  the  fundamental  courts.  In 
1829  the  revisers  defined  the  jurisdiction  of  the  courts  by  a  reference 
to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Court  of  Chancery  in  England.  There- 
after the  extent  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Court  of  Chancery  of  the 
Province  of  New- York  ceased  to  be  of  paramount  importance. 
The  late  Judge  Hoffman,  in  1834,  however,  makes  a  very  interest- 
ing discourse,  in  which  he  attributes  the  jurisdiction  of  the  court  to 
the  "act  to  settle  Courts  of  Justice,"  passed  1  November,  1683. 
The  act  of  1683,  he  argues,  revived  on  the  expiration  of  the  acts  in 
this  volume  in  the  manner  above  denoted.  Judge  Hoffman  fails, 
however,  to  state  that  by  the  original  constitution  of  the  British 
colonies,  which  was  practically  settled  in  the  days  of  the  Stuarts, 
and  reformed  only  in  this  century,  the  King's  prerogative  to  estab- 
lish courts  of  justice  without  assistance  from  the  local  assemblies 
was  very  clear :  no  act  of  the  Assembly  was  necessary  to  uphold 
the  power.  Hoffman's  argument  finds  support,  however,  in  the 
position  of  the  anti-prerogative  party  in  the  Province  of  New- 
York  ;  but  unfortunately  that  party  could  not  by  itself  then  make 
its  ideals  and  aspirations  the  law  of  New-York.  The  law  was  then 
quite  otherwise.  These  law-making  prerogative  ordinances  sur- 
vived the  death  of  the  Governor  who  made  them. 


2R.S.,i96. 


Laws,  pp.  2, 
64. 

Treatise 
upon  the 
Practice  of 
the  Court 
of  Chancery, 
Chap.  I. 

Chalmers's 
Colonial 
Opinions, 
484. 

See  note  36, 
infra. 

But  see  Doc. 
rel.  Col. 
Hist.  N.  Y., 
VIII,  325  ; 
and  note  36, 
infra. 


25- 

"An  A  51  for  fettling  Fairs  and  Markets  in  each  refpective  City  Laws,  p.  69. 
and  County  throughout  this  Province."  This  act,  as  much  as  any 
other  in  this  volume,  shows  the  extent  to  which  the  law  of  Eng- 
land was  then  thought  to  prevail  in  New- York.  In  England 
no  fair  could  be  held  without  a  grant  from  the  sovereign,  or 
by  prescription,  which  always  presumed  a  grant.  This  act  was 
a  plenary  grant  of  the  right  to  hold  fairs  and  markets,  with  all 
their  common  law  incidents,  including  the  Court  of  Pepoudres,  or 
Pie-Powder  Courts,  originally  a  Norman  institution.  The  name 
was  derived  from  "pied  puldreux,  'dustyfute.'"  These  courts,  the 
most  expeditious  of  all  courts,  were  presided  over  by  the  lord  of 
the  fair,  or  his  representatives,  with  a  jury  of  traders  chosen  on 
the  spot.  They  possessed  a  jurisdiction  limited  by  the  fair,  and 
to  matters  occurring  within  its  precincts,  such  as  contracts,  slander 
of  wares,  attestations,  the  preservation  of  order,  etc.  To  be  valid  a 
sale  must  take  place  in  market  overt,  and  then  the  vendee's  title 

cxxv 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON   THE  LAWS. 


See  Wood's 
Institutes, 
title,  Fairs 
and  Markets, 
London 
edit.,  1772. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.Y.,  III, 
628,  832. 


Laws  and 
Ordinances 
of  NewNeth- 
erland,  29. 


Ibid.,  364. 


Laws,  p.  69. 


was  good  as  against  every  one  but  the  King.  There  were  special 
rules  about  sales  of  horses.  No  tolls  could  be  taken  unless  the 
power  was  granted.  Wood  says,  "  Every  one  that  hath  a  market 
ought  to  have  Pillory,  Tumbrel,  etc.,  to  punish  offenders."  The 
act  in  this  volume  makes  the  rulers  of  the  fair  those  appointed 
by  the  Governor,  the  King's  representative;  and  confers  on  such 
"rulers"  the  usual  jurisdiction  of  lords  of  the  English  fairs.  The 
commissions  of  the  governors  of  New-York  authorized  them, 
with  the  advice  of  the  Council,  to  establish  fairs  and  markets. 
This  was  a  delegation  of  the  King's  prerogative,  and  could  be 
exercised  without  the  consent  of  the  Assembly.  Nearly  all  the 
countries  of  Europe  had  at  one  time  open  stated  fairs,  and  the 
Dutch  Director-General  of  New  Netherland,  in  conformity  with 
ancient  custom,  did,  in  the  year  1641,  establish  a  "Cattle  Fair,"  to 
be  held  on  October  15th  of  each  year,  and  a  "Fair  for  Hogs,"  on  the 
first  of  every  November.  On  28  November,  1658,  the  burgomas- 
ters and  schepens  of  New  Amsterdam  were  authorized  to  establish 
two  fairs  "  in  that  City";  one  for  lean  cattle,  and  one  for  fat  cattle. 
During  these  fairs  no  stranger  was  subject  to  arrest  or  process. 
This  was  an  ancient  exemption.  In  1675  "a  yearly  Fair  had  been 
established  in  Breuckelen  near  the  Ferry  for  all  grayned  cattle 
or  produce  to  be  held  the  first  Munday  Tuesday  and  Wednesday 
in  November  and  in  the  City  of  New- York  the  Thursday  Friday 
and  Saturday  following." 

Under  this  act  fairs  and  markets  were  held  in  the  Province  of 
New-York  until  the  outbreak  of  the  War  of  Independence.  How 
often  the  court  of  Pie- Powder  was  held,  the  data  ready  at  hand 
fail  to  indicate ;  but  such  a  court  was  held  in  some  instances  in 
this  province. 


26. 


Laws,  p.  72. 


Title,  Ad- 
ministration. 


Title,  Or- 
phans. 


'An  Acl  for  the  fupervijing  Intejlates  Eflates,  and  Regulating 
the  Probate  of  Wills,  &  granting  Letters  of  A  dminiflration." 
The  Duke's  Laws  had,  in  1665,  made  it  the  duty  of  overseers 
of  the  parish  on  the  death  of  any  person  at  once  to  repair  to 
the  house  of  deceased,  and  if  such  an  one  died  intestate,  then  to 
list  his  effects,  etc. :  estates  of  intestates  escheated  if  there  were  no 
relatives  within  the  prescribed  degrees.  "Administration,"  "In- 
ventories," "Appraisements,"  "Sales  and  Division  of  Estates," 
were  all  regulated  by  the  Duke's  Laws.    This  act  was  based  on  the 


CXXVl 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LAWS. 


Duke's  Laws,  which  it  changed,  taking  away  the  duties  of  overseers 
and  of  the  clerks  of  the  sessions,  who  acted  as  surrogates  to  the 
Ordinary,  and  vesting  such  duties  in  two  freeholders  of  each  town. 
The  probate  of  wills  independently  of  this  act  was  by  instructions 
from  the  crown  reserved  at  the  time  this  act  was  passed  to  the 
Governor  of  the  province,  and  the  prior  jurisdiction  over  probate 
matters  were  ipso  facto  taken  away  :  this  the  act  only  confirmed. 
For  an  account  of  this  act  and  the  probate  courts  of  New-York, 
consult  the  Matter  of  Brick's  Estate,  and  Judge  C.  P.  Daly's 
"Judicial  Organization  of  the  State  of  New-York." 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  Ill, 
821. 

15  Abb.  Pr., 
12;  E.  D. 
Smith,  I, 
preface ; 
Introduc. 
Redfield's 
Practice  of 
N.  Y.  Sur- 
rogate's 
Courts. 


27. 


"An  Acl  for  the  Encouraging  a  Pofi-Office."  The  earliest  of- 
ficial notice  of  a  post-office  in  the  English  colonies  is  contained 
in  the  records  of  the  general  court  of  Massachusetts  in  1638: 
"  It  is  ordered  that  notice  be  given  that  Richard  Fairbanks  his 
house  in  Boston  is  the  place  appointed  for  all  letters  which  are 
brought  from  beyond  the  seas  or  are  to  be  sent  thither  to  be 
left  with  him ;  and  he  is  to  take  care  that  they  are  to  be  de- 
livered or  sent  according  to  the  directions ;  and  he  is  allowed  for 
every  letter  a  penny  and  must  answer  all  miscarriages  through 
his  own  neglect  in  this  kind."  In  Virginia,  a  law  of  1657  required 
every  planter  to  produce  a  messenger  to  carry  the  despatches 
to  the  next  plantation,  and  so  on,  on  pain  of  forfeiting  a  hogs- 
head of  tobacco.  The  government  of  New- York  in  1672  estab- 
lished a  post  to  go  monthly  from  New-York  to  Boston.  When  the 
Duke  of  York  was  in  possession  of  the  profits  of  the  post-office, 
under  an  act  of  15  Car.  II.  he  claimed  the  profits  for  America.  In 
1684,  Governor  Dongan  had  leave  to  set  up  a  "Post  House,"  and 
endeavored  to  establish  a  post-office.  The  letters  patent  to 
Thomas  Neal,  mentioned  in  this  act,  seem  to  have  preceded 
the  appointment  of  a  postmaster-general  for  the  colonies,  which 
was  made  in  1692.  Neal,  on  4  April,  1692,  appointed  as  his 
deputy  Andrew  Hamilton,  who  brought  the  subject  before  Gov- 
ernor Fletcher;  and  the  Legislature  of  New- York  then  passed 
this  act.  A  similar  act  was  passed  by  Virginia  in  March,  1693; 
Pennsylvania,  1  June,  1693;  Massachusetts  Bay,  9  June,  1693; 
Connecticut,  10  May,  1694;  New  Hampshire,  24  May,  1695;  and 
Carolina,  5  February,  170 1-2.    In  1705,  the  New- York  Assembly 


Laws,  p.  74. 


Miles's 
Hist,  of  the 
Post-office, 
Amer. 
Bankers' 
Mag., VII, 
358,  seq. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  Ill, 
350,  355- 
Laws,  p.  74. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  IV, 
200,  note. 


cxxvn 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LAWS. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  IV, 
1 167. 


9  Anne, 
c.  10. 


passed  "An  act  for  enforcing  and  continuing  a  post  office."  Not 
much  was  done  under  these  acts.  In  1710a  general  act  was  passed : 
the  postmaster-general  of  the  colonies  was  "  to  keep  his  chief 
letter  office  in  New- York  and  other  chief  offices  at  some  con- 
venient places  in  each  of  her  Majestys  provinces  or  colonies  in 
America."  The  colonial  revenue  was  very  small  until  Benjamin 
Franklin  remodeled  the  post-office. 


Laws,  p.  77- 

Note  23, 
supra. 

Note  34, 
infra. 


28. 

"An  Acl  for  the  fatisfying  and  paying  the  Debts  of  the  Govern- 
ment." This  act  was  an  extraordinary  grant,  no  doubt  occasioned 
by  the  debts  incurred  in  defending  the  province  against  the  French 
and  the  Indians. 


Laws,  p.  79. 


Journal 
Legislative 
Council, 
I»  35.39- 

Note  2,  Mil- 
ler's N.  Y.  in 
1695. 


Laws,  p.  80. 

Laws  and 
Ordinances 
of  New  Neth- 
erland,  174, 
et  passim  j 
Journal  Leg- 
islative 
Council,  39. 


29. 

"An  Acl  for  calling  Long-Ifland  the  Ifland  of  Naffaw." 
The  change  of  name  was  not  welcome  to  the  people.  Governor 
Fletcher  remonstrated  at  the  opposition  to  a  change  made,  at  his 
personal  request,  in  honor  of  the  "best  of  Kings."  He  explained 
that  it  "can  noe  wayes  hurt  or  injure  any  former  grants  or  con- 
veyances of  Lands."  Dr.  Shea  states  that  the  change  of  name 
never  obtained  in  the  province.  Yet  it  certainly  did  obtain 
in  official  usage,  although  the  description  of  real  estate  on  the 
island  was  sufficient  if  it  named  the  county  only.  The  desig- 
nation of  Nassau  Island  was  therefore  purely  geographical  sur- 
plusage in  most  cases.  Like  many  other  such  changes  depending 
on  popular  ratification,  it  failed  in  practice.  Still,  the  change  of 
name  was  often  observed  in  legal  documents  until  after  American 
independence. 

"An  Acl  for  eflablishing  certain  Rates  and  Duties  upon  fuch 
Goods,  Wares  and  Merchandize  as  shall  be  brought  unto  their 
Majeflies  Beam  in  the  Weigh-Houfe  at  New- York."  The  weigh- 
ing-house was  established  in  New  Amsterdam  by  Director  Stuy- 
vesant  in  the  year  1654,  and  the  fees  were  regulated  at  various 
times.  It  was  continued  in  use  after  the  conquest  of  1664.  The 
Duke's  Laws  required  the  high  constable  in  each  riding  to  provide 
a  good  "  beam." 


CXXVlll 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LAWS. 


31 


"An  Ail  for  fettling  a  Miniflry  &  raifing  a  Maintenance  for 
them  in  the  City  of  New  -York,  County  of  Richmond,  Weftchefter 
and  Queens  County."  This  act  has  given  rise  to  much  contro- 
versy ;  and  its  effect  upon  the  Church  of  England  in  the  Province 
of  New- York  is  variously  treated  by  those  of  different  religious 
thought  and  discipline.  It  remained  in  force  until  after  the  War 
of  Independence,  when  it  was  specially  repealed.  The  late  Doctor 
George  H.  Moore  has  given  a  very  full  account  of  this  act,  and 
draws  conclusions  not  universally  admitted  to  be  accurate,  although 
it  should  be  observed  that  he  is  high  authority  on  such  matters. 
This  act  enters  too  largely  into  the  controversy  over  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Church  of  England  in  New-York ;  for  churchmen  do 
not  pretend  that  this  act  in  itself  proves  the  establishment  of  the 
Church  of  England  in  New- York.  On  the  contrary,  Mr.  de  Lancey 
maintains  with  great  directness  of  assertion  that  the  Church  of 
England  was  established  in  the  province,  otherwise,  and  he  claims 
for  this  act  only  that  it  fostered  the  establishment.  Dr.  Moore  says 
the  act  "was  arbitrarily  and  illegally  wrested  from  its  true  bearing 
and  made  to  answer  the  purpose  of  the  English  Church  party." 
Mr.  de  Lancey  founds  his  arguments  largely  on  the  King's  obliga- 
tion by  his  coronation  oath  to  establish  the  church  in  the  crown 
colonies,  and  on  the  31st  to  the  38th  instructions  from  the  crown 
to  Governor  Dongan  (29  May,  1686).  These  things,  Mr.  de 
Lancey  thinks,  established  the  Church  of  England  in  New-York, 
placing  it  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
The  instructions  to  Dongan  were,  with  little  variation,  continued 
by  the  succeeding  sovereigns. 

Subsequent  to  Dongan's  administration,  the  Bishop  of  London, 
as  primate  in  partibus  exteris,  became  diocesan  of  the  province, 
and  as  such  was  the  first  rector  emeritus  of  Trinity  Church.  This 
great  foundation,  while  not  a  cathedral  church,  is  well  known  to 
be  a  unique  parish  church,  if  not  the  most  influential  and  powerful 
one  since  the  foundation  of  Christianity.  Wallace  terms  this 
church  "  mater  urbis  et  orbis,"  and  the  "San  Giovanne  Laterano" 
of  the  New  World. 

Other  authorities  on  the  church  in  America  are  at  one  with  Mr. 
de  Lancey's  conclusions  about  establishment.  But  all  such  are 
far  from  passing  unchallenged.  The  historian  Smith,  as  early  as 
1737,  admits  that  the  question  of  the  establishment  of  the  church 


Laws,  p.  81. 


Butler's 
Constitu- 
tional His- 
tory N.  Y., 
45- 

June,  1867, 
Dawson's 
Hist.  Mag- 
azine (2d 
series)  I, 
321  ;  idem, 
II,  9. 

Edward  F. 
de  Lancey, 
Esq.,  in 
Legal  Es- 
tablish- 
ment of  the 
Church  of 
England  in 
New-York. 

Hist.  Mag. 
(2d  series), 
I,  328. 


Magazine 

Amer. 

Hist., 

XXVI, 

117. 

See  Com- 
memora- 
tive Ad- 
dress on 
William 
Bradford, 
82. 


IO 


cxxix 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LAWS. 


Hist.  Prov. 
N.  Y.,  I, 
286. 


Mag.  Amer. 
History, 
III,  624; 
American 
Presbyteri- 
anism  :  Its 
Origin,  etc., 
c.  Ill ;  Mag. 
Amer.  Hist. 
XIII,  39. 

Mag.  Amer. 
Hist.,  VIII, 
610. 


Cf.  James 
Anderson's 
History  of 
the  Church 
of  England 
in  the  Colon- 
ies, 3  vols.. 
1856;  Chit- 
ty's  Preroga- 
tives of  the 
Crown, 
Chap.  Ill; 
de  Lancey's 
Manors  of 
New-York, 
93  ;   note  23 
to  Miller's 
New-York 
in  1695,  by 
John  Gil- 
mary  Shea, 
LL.  D. 


Smith's  Hist. 
N.  Y.,1, 
p.  284; 
see  Father 
Jogue's 
Papers, 
Collectionsof 
N.  Y.  Hist. 
Society,  III, 
216. 


is  often  controverted,  but  he  argues  against  establishment  in  a 
manner  thought  often  very  conclusive  by  many  intelligent  men. 
It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  Reverend  John  Miller,  in  his  "  De- 
scription of  the  Province  and  City  of  New -York  in  1695," — 
written  at  the  time  and  on  the  spot, — makes  no  claim  for  estab- 
lishment; and  what  he  says  would  appear  to  be  rather  against,  than 
for,  such  establishment.  Others  who  have  dealt  with  this  subject 
in  a  vein  hostile  to  the  pretension  of  the  Church  of  England  in 
New-York  are  the  Reverend  Charles  W.  Baird,  in  a  paper  on 
"  The  Presbyterians  in  the  Province  of  New  -York,"  and  the 
Reverend  Charles  Augustus  Briggs,  D.  D.  In  these  works  this 
act  is  discussed  at  large  with  much  profundity  of  thought  and 
research.  It  is  important  to  note  that  the  vestrymen  chosen 
under  this  act  were  civil  officers,  and  quite  distinct  from  the  vestry 
of  Trinity  Church  in  the  city  of  New-York. 

Without  entering  into  the  discussion  of  this  vexed  question 
concerning  establishment,  it  may  be  suggested  that  several  points 
are  not  at  times  observed  by  controversialists.  No  two  writers 
appear  to  agree  in  the  definition  of  "Established  Church,"  while 
several  writers  altogether  disregard  the  difference  between  the 
royal  prerogative  over  a  crown  province  and  the  royal  prerogative 
over  a  chartered  colony.  After  the  statute  26  Henry  VIII.  c.  I, 
the  King  was  the  head  of  the  English  Church,  and  the  guardian 
of  the  temporalities  during  the  vacancy  of  a  see.  In  crown  Prov- 
inces he  could  create  new  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  and  exercise 
there  the  ecclesiastical  prerogative.  It  would  seem,  therefore, 
that  the  disputed  point  should  be  discussed  from  the  basis  of 
what  the  King  could  do  and  did  do  in  New-York  as  the  head 
of  the  English  Church,  rather  than  from  what  actually  happened 
to  the  establishment ;  for  in  the  crown  Provinces  the  King's  power 
of  legislation  was  in  the  seventeenth  century  most  extended. 
Another  omission  observable  in  the  discussion  indicated  would 
seem  to  relate  to  the  observance  accorded  in  New-York  to  the 
laws  relative  to  the  test  oath.  The  effect  of  the  test  as  an  evi- 
dence of  "establishment"  is  not  foreign  to  this  controversy,  as 
some  writers  would  seem  to  assume.  But  no  expression  of  opinion 
is  intended  to  be  made;  as,  in  1694,  when  Bradford  published  this 
volume  of  laws  now  reproduced,  and  our  account  of  the  province 
closes,  the  Church  of  England  was  an  abstraction  rather  than  a 
fact.  The  Dutch  Church,  "established"  under  the  prior  govern- 
ment and  protected  by  the  Articles  of  Surrender  of  1664,  was  then 


cxxx 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LAWS. 


the  flourishing  religious  organization  in  the  province,  excepting  in 
Suffolk  County,  where  the  Congregationalists  of  the  Connecticut 
type  dominated. 

32- 

"An  Aft  confirming  &  continuing  unto  their  Majefties  the    Laws,  p.  84. 
Revenue  eftablished  by  an  Act  .  .  .  five  Years  longer  than  the 
Term  therein  mentioned."    See  notes  10  and  23.  Supra. 


33- 

"An   ACT  for  Refiraining  and  Punishing  Privateers  and    Doc.  rei. 
Pyrates"  (separately  printed).    This  act  was  probably  drawn  in  ^olYHlni 
England.    Piracy  was  the  one  fashionable  irregularity  of  that  day    690,  823. 
in  New- York;  it  was  winked  at  officially  oftentimes,  if  not  actually 
shared  in,  and  sometimes  it  was  condoned  even  by  high  authority. 
The  warlike  spirit  of  the  age  then  made  colonists  first  armed  priva- 
teers ;  and  licensed  privateers  without  pay  lapsed  easily  into  free- 
booters and  outlaws.    It  is  not  difficult  to  misjudge  the  relative 
gravity  of  offenses  at  a  time  when  every  man's  hand  was  raised, 
and  might  governed  in  the  out-of-the-way  corners  of  the  world. 
Little  by  little  sentiment  changed,  and  then  the  law  against  piracy 
came  into  operation,  after  some  cessation  of  its  activity;  for  it  had 
been  in  abeyance  only,  and  not  blotted  out  of  the  jus  inter  gentes. 
There  is  no  proof  that  this  crime  was  ever  condoned  by  the  highest 
authority  of  all,  the  crown  itself,  which  in  due  time  took  active 
measures  to  put  an  end  to  the  scandal.    This  law  indicates  only 
the  beginning  of  an  active  crusade  against  the  evil,  the  history  of 
which  may  be  seen  in  the  colonial  documents  relative  to  New- 
York.     The  reform  culminated  in  the  execution  of   Kidd   and    ibid.  Vols, 
the  disgrace  of  several  persons  of  respectability  in  the  province,    passim.  ' 
When  this  had  happened,  privateering  came  into  harmony  with 
the  laws  of  nations  and  of  war.     The  episodes  of  such  culmina- 
tion, while  highly  interesting  to  some  persons,  can  form  no  part  of 
the  comments  on  the  laws  in  this  volume. 


34- 

"An  A61  for  Granting  to  their  Majefties  the  Rate  of  One  Penny 
per  Pound  upon  all  the  Real  and  Perfonal  Eftates  within  this 
Province  of  New -York,  &c.   To  be  allowed  unto  his  Excellency  the 

exxxi 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LAWS. 


See  notes 
10,  23,  28, 
30,  32,  su- 
pra. 


See  notes  12, 
17,  19,  21, 
supra. 


Governour,  for  the  Care  of  the  Province,  November  the  12th,  1692." 
This  grant  to  the  Governor  has  no  relation  to  the  revenue  acts : 
it  was  always  on  the  basis  of  an  extraordinary  grant  or  largess  to 
the  Governor. 

35- 

"An  A  51  for  raijing  fix  Thoufand  Pound  for  the  payment  of 
three  Hundred  Volunteers,  and  their  Officers,  to  be  imployed  in  the 
Re-inforcement  of  the  Frontiers  of  this  Province  at  Albany,"  etc. 
When  the  frontiers  were  at  Albany,  the  province  was  not  infre- 
quently described  as  "  Long  Island  and  the  mainland  or  territories 
adjoining."  Long  Island  was  at  this  time  far  the  most  populous 
part  of  the  province,  and  Albany  the  most  exposed. 


36. 


Cf.  Chan- 
cellor Jones 
on  Ordi- 
nances fixing 
fees,  in  N.Y. 
Hist.  Soc. 
Collections 
for  1821. 


"A  Catalogue  of  Fees  eflablifiied  by  the  Governour  and  Coun- 
cil at  the  Humble  Requefl  of  the  Affembly."  This  ordinance  serves 
to  indicate  the  acquiescence  of  the  representatives  in  the  limited 
power  committed  to  the  crown  governor  to  legislate  indepen- 
dently. Its  insertion  at  the  end  of  this  volume  permits  some 
otherwise  irrelevant  comments  on  the  power  of  the  crown  to  make 
ordinances  serve  as  laws.  This  power  was  derived  from  the  royal 
prerogative  over  crown  provinces.  The  crown  then  retained, 
either  in  the  grant  of  an  assembly  or  by  implication,  an  extra- 
ordinary power,  limited,  but  tolerably  certain,  to  legislate  for  this 
province  independently  of  the  Assembly;  but  this  power  must  be 
exercised  within  the  narrow  range  prescribed  by  the  common  law 
for  such  prerogative  action,  or  it  was  illegal :  it  could  be,  and 
was,  delegated  to  the  governors  of  New-York.  A  prerogative 
without  the  means  to  enforce  it  would  have  been  a  semblance  of 
power:  this  the  crown  did  not  concede  itself  to  possess  in  the  case 
of  New- York.  Whatever  may  be  true  of  England,  the  preroga- 
tive over  New-York  was  settled  on  the  basis  of  the  pretensions  of 
King  Charles  II.,  and  so  remained  until  the  War  of  American  In- 
dependence. In  any  consideration  of  the  laws  in  this  volume,  we 
must  have  regard,  therefore,  to  the  prerogative  as  it  existed  here, 
not  to  the  later  ideals  to  which  the  crown  of  England  is  now 
justly  conformed.  The  extent  of  this  particular  power  can  hardly 
be  discussed  within  the  limits  of  this  Introduction.    Its  best  expo- 


cxxxii 


NOTES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  LAWS. 


sition  will  be  found  in  the  opinions  of  those  law-officers  of  the 
crown  who  were  charged  with  the  colonial  administration  :  many 
of  them  were  wise  and  excellent  men  — the  very  flower  of  the  bar 
of  England.  Some  of  their  opinions  we  have,  and  from  these  we 
have,  we  may  deduce,  under  the  law  of  legal  discussion,  what  those 
we  have  not  must  have  been.  This  power  of  legislation  indi- 
cated can  hardly  be  judged  of  correctly  without  throwing  ourselves 
back  into  the  age  of  the  discussion :  this  is  extremely  necessary, 
as  was  shown  in  a  case  as  recent  as  the  last  term  of  the  court  at  Biackmai 

Albany,  in  the  year   1893.    The  plaintiff  counted  on  an  ordi-    v-  Riley' 

1 38  N  Y 

nance  of  the  royal  Governor  of  New-York,  which  the  defendant  318. 
evidently  deemed  entirely  incompetent,  because  its  provisions  were 
not  fixed  by  acts  of  the  Assembly  of  the  province.  Now,  to  settle 
this  power  on  the  basis  of  present  institutions  is  impossible  —  the 
question  is,  what  was  the  law  ?  Those  who  wish  to  ascertain  what 
it  was,  must  seek  far,  not  in  the  ideas  of  modern  English  writers  on 
the  present  fluctuating  constitution,  but  in  the  ideas  of  those  who 
deal  with  that  colonial  constitution  which  closed  for  New-York  in 
1775,  on  the  day  of  the  battle  of  Lexington  and  Concord — the 
date  now  fixed  by  law  for  rejecting  the  authority  of  our  former 
rulers.  As  the  kingdom  of  England  was  in  process  of  conversion 
into  a  limited  monarchy,  the  royal  prerogative  was  gradually  fixed 
by  constitutional  limitations.  As  it  was  fixed  in  the  days  of  King 
Charles  II.,  so  it  passed  into  the  colonies;  or,  rather,  that  interpre- 
tation of  it  deemed  to  be  specially  applicable  to  them,  so  passed.  It 
is  a  matter  of  common  history  that,  after  the  Restoration,  Charles 
II.  issued  proclamations  in  England,  which,  to  some  extent,  were 
allowed  the  force  of  law,  although  the  validity  of  proclamations  in 
general  had  been  disputed  under  James  I.  The  origin  of  the 
King's  power  to  legislate  at  all  in  crown  colonies  by  ordinance  is 
to  be  sought  far  back  in  the  history  of  the  English  kings,  or  in  the 
days  when  legislation  by  ordinances  was  constitutional,  and  often 
convenient ;  for  an  ordinance  of  the  King  could  be  revoked  at  will, 
and  was  therefore  thought  even  by  parliament  itself  to  be  well 
adapted  to  express  certain  kinds  of  temporary  laws.  Having 
reference  to  this  well-known  origin  of  ordinances,  we  may  easily 
perceive  why  the  crown  lawyers  fastened  upon  them  as  well  suited 
to  that  species  of  legislation  which  all  admitted  King  Charles  II. 
had  the  right  to  exercise,  independently  of  the  Assembly,  over  con- 
quered or  crown  provinces.  When  this  power  was  once  reserved 
in  the  commissions  to  the  governors  of  New- York,  and  approved 


10* 


cxxxiii 


NOTES  AND   OBSERVATIONS  ON   THE  LAWS. 


Doc.  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  V, 
48. 


Blackman 
v.  Riley, 
supra,  p. 
cxxxiii. 


by  those  charged  with  the  colonial  administration,  this  species 
of  legislation  ceased  to  be  archaic,  and  soon  again  came  to  be 
acquiesced  in  by  the  majority.  At  all  events,  a  prerogative  to  leg- 
islate in  New-York  by  ordinance  was  fixed  here  until  independence 
severed  the  relation  which  the  kingship  bore  to  the  particular 
Province  of  New-York.  Not  that  the  power  was  indisputable  or 
undisputed !  In  several  cases  in  New-York,  notably  Cosby  v. 
Van  Dam,  in  1733  (unreported),  its  exercise  was  vigorously  dis- 
puted: but  by  a  school  of  thought  which,  singularly  enough,  stood 
not  so  much  for  autonomy,  or  for  the  right  of  the  province  to  self- 
government,  as  for  the  supremacy  of  the  parliament  of  England ; 
for  this  school  admitted,  and  even  invoked,  the  right  of  parliament 
to  legislate  for  the  colonies.  Now,  the  right  of  parliament  to  leg- 
islate for  the  unrepresented  colonies  was  an  usurpation  of  the  time 
of  the  English  commonwealth,  and  excepting  in  colonies  where 
such  right  was  expressly  reserved  in  the  charters  it  was  absolutely 
indefensible  at  all  times  and  by  all  law.  The  colonists  always  said  : 
Better  one  king  than  a  hundred  kinglets.  Thus  the  exercise  of 
this  power  by  parliament  when  finally  abetted  by  the  King,  was, 
in  the  minds  of  many  royalists  in  the  colonies,  the  real  grievance 
on  which  they  ultimately  sanctioned  in  their  own  minds  the  right 
of  revolution  and  even  independence  of  the  King — whom  they  had 
been  taught  to  regard  as  their  natural  protector.  Whether  the 
ordinance  fixing  the  fee  bill  was  properly  within  the  prerogative 
of  the  King  is  another  question,  and  one  ultimately  decided  ad- 
versely to  the  power.  However,  in  this  particular  instance,  which 
was  an  exception,  the  ordinance  was  petitioned  for  by  the  Assembly. 

The  very  recent  case  mentioned  in  this  note  makes  a  considera- 
tion of  ordinances  in  abstracto  perhaps  not  altogether  out  of  place, 
the  more  especially  so,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  many  such  were  pro- 
mulgated prior  to  Independence.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  Duke's 
Laws  of  1665  contained  a  "Fee  bill."  The  entire  code  of  laws, 
known,  after  1674,  as  the  Duke's  Laws,  was  little  more  than  an 
ordinance,  of  the  kind  discussed  in  this  note,  although  it  was  pro- 
mulgated at  the  Court  of  Assizes. 


cxxxiv 


APPENDIX  No.  I. 


( Orders  in  Council.) 


At  the  Council  Chamber  in  Whitehall    n.  y.  Col. 

the  nth  day  of  May  1697.  xll's™' 


Present:  Their  Excellencies  the  Lords  Justices 

in  Council. 


Whereas  by  Powers  under  the  Great  Seal  of  England  the  Gov- 
Council  &  Assembly  of  his  Majesty's  Province  of  New  York  have 
been  authorized  &  Impowered  to  Constitute  &  Ordain  Laws 
Statutes  &  Ordinances  which  are  to  be  transmitted  to  his  Majesty 
for  his  Royal  Approbation,  or  disallowance  of  them ;  and  the 
Council  of  Trent  [sic/  Trade/]  having  perused  &  Considered 
Several  Laws  past  in  the  General  Assembly  of  that  Province,  in 
Persuance  of  the  said  Powers,  intituled  as  follows  viz1 : 

An  Act  for  the  quieting  &  Settling  the  disorders  that  have  lately 
happen'd  within  this  Province  &  for  the  Establishing  &  Securing 
their  Majesty's  Present  Government  against  the  like  disorders  for 
the  future. 

An  Act  for  Settling  the  Militia. 

An  Act  for  the  Enabling  each  respective  Town  within  this  Prov- 
ince to  regulate  their  ffences  and  High  Ways  &  make  prudential 
Orders  for  their  Peace  &  Orderly  improvement. 

An  Act  for  the  defraying  the  publick  &  necessary  Charge 
throughout  this  Province  &  Maintaining  the  Poor  &  preventing 
Vagabonds. 

An  Act  for  an  Allowance  to  the  Representatives. 

An  Act  to  Enable  his  Excellency  to  defray  his  Extraordinary 
expence  &  to  indemnify  the  Collector  &  Receiver  General  for  the 
receipt  of  Several  Sums  of  Money  on  pretence  of  Customs,  & 
Duties. 


Laws,  p.  1. 


Laws,  p.  10. 
Laws,  p.  7. 


Laws,  p.  8. 


Laws,  p.  19. 
Laws,  p.  26. 


cxxxv 


APPENDIX  NO.  I. 


Laws,  p.  30. 
Laws,  p.  43. 

Laws,  p.  52. 
Laws,  p.  69. 

Laws,  p.  77. 
Laws,  p.  58. 

Laws,  p.  72. 

Laws,  p.  79. 
Laws,  p.  80. 


Laws,  p.  81. 


Laws,  p.  84. 


See  Bas- 
kett,  p.  23. 


An  Act  to  ease  People  that  are  scrupulous  in  Swearing. 
An  Act  for  regulating  the  Building  Streets,  Lanes,  Wharfs, 
Docks  &  Allyes  of  the  City  of  New  York. 
An  Act  for  the  distroying  of  Wolves. 

An  Act  for  the  Settling  of  Fairs  &  Markets  in  each  respective 
City  &  County,  throughout  the  Province. 

An  Act  for  the  Satisfying  &  paying  the  Debts  of  the  Govnt. 

An  Act  Establishing  a  Revenue  upon  their  Majestys  for  the  De- 
fraying the  publick  &  necessary  Charges  of  the  Govnt. 

An  Act  for  the  Supervising  Intestates  Estates  and  regulating 
the  probate  of  Wills  &  Granting  of  Letters  of  Administration. 

An  Act  for  calling  Long  Island  the  Island  of  Nassau. 

An  Act  for  Establishing  certain  Rates  and  Duties,  upon  such 
Goods,  Wares  &  Merchandizes,  as  shall  be  brought  into  their 
Majestys  Beam  in  the  Weigh  house  at  New  York. 

An  Act  for  the  Settling  a  Ministry  &  raising  a  Maintenance  for 
them  in  the  City  &  County  of  New  York,  County  of  Richmond, 
West  Chester  &  Queens  County. 

An  Act  Confirming  &  Continuing  unto  their  Majesties,  the  Rev- 
enue Established  by  an  Act  of  General  Assembly,  made  in  the  4th 
Year  of  their  Majesties  Reign  for  the  defraying  the  publick  & 
necessary  Charges  of  the  Government,  five  years  longer,  than  the 
time  therein  mentioned. 

An  Act  against  unlawfull  By-Laws  &  unreasonable  forfeitures. 

An  Act  for  Confirming  &  Continuing  An  Act  of  General  As- 
sembly, made  in  the  4th  year  of  their  Majesties  Reign,  Entituled 
An  Act  for  the  Satisfying  &  paying  the  Debts  of  the  Govnt.  one 
year  longer  than  the  term  therein  mentioned. 

An  Act  for  Confirming  &  Continuing  An  Act  of  General  As- 
sembly, made  in  the  4th  Year  of  their  Majesties  Reign,  Entituled 
An  Act  for  the  Satisfying  the  Debts  of  the  Govnt.  one  year  longer 
than  the  time  mentioned  for  its  last  Continuance,  to  be  imploy'd 
for  the  Rebuilding  of  their  Majestys  Chapel  in  the  ffort,  the  Mount- 
ing of  16  Great  Guns  &  the  Defraying  of  the  Debts  of  the  Govnt. 

An  Act  against  the  Prophanation  of  the  Lords  Day  called 
Sunday. 

An  Act  for  the  Confirming  &  Continuing  An  Act  of  General 
Assembly,  made  in  the  4th  Year  of  his  Majesty's  Reign,  Entituled 
An  Act  for  the  Satisfying  &  paying  the  Debts  of  the  Govnt.  18 
Months  longer  than  the  Term  therein  mentioned  &  for  the  paying 
the  Debts  herein  express'd. 


cxxxvi 


APPENDIX  NO.  I. 


And  the  Council  of  Trade  having  this  Day  presented  the  Said 
Laws  to  their  Excellencies  at  this  Board,  their  Excellencies  were 
thereupon  with  the  Advice  of  the  Privy  Council  pleased  to  declare 
their  Approbation  of  the  Same  &  pursuant  to  their  Excellencies 
pleasure  herein  Signify'd  the  Said  Laws  are  hereby  Confirm'd 
finally  Enacted  &  Ratify'd  accordingly. 

Richard  Colinge. 

i  ith  May  1697. 

Endorsed  : 
Order  of  ye  Privy  Council 
1 1  May  1697 
confirming  several  acts. 


[seal  of 

privy  At  the  Court  at  Kensington 

council.]  the  20th  of  May  1708. 

Present:  The  Queens  most  Excellent  Majesty 

in  Council. 

Whereas  by  Commission  under  the  Great  Seal  of  England,  the 
Governour  Councill  and  Assembly  of  Her  Mats.  Province  of  New 
York  have  been  authorized  and  Impowered  to  make,  constitute 
and  Ordain  Laws,  Statutes  and  Ordinances  for  the  Publick  Peace, 
Welfare  and  Good  Government  of  the  said  province,  Which  are  to 
be  transmitted  to  Her  Majesty  for  her  Royall  approbation  or  Dis- 
allowance of  them  A  nd  Whereas  in  pursuance  of  the  said  powers 
Divers  Laws  past  in  the  said  Province  of  New  York  from  the  Year 
1 69 1  to  the  Year  1705  having  been  Transmitted  The  Titles  where- 
of are  as  follows  viz1 : 

An  Act  to  Divide  this  province  and  Dependencies  into  shires  Laws,  p.  39. 
and  Counties,  past  in  1691. 

An  Act  for  the  Indemnifying  of  all  such  Persons  as  were  Ex- 
cepted out  of  the  Generall  Pardon  made  by  Act  of  Generall  As- 
sembly in  this  province  in  the  Year  of  our  Lord  1691,  past  in  169!. 

An  Act  for  Repealing  an  Act  of  Assembly  Entituled  An  Act  for 
the  Regulating  Damages  done  in  the  time  of  the  late  Disorders 
and  for  Uniting  the  minds  of  Their  Majesties  Subjects  within  the 
province  and  for  Calling  home  such  of  their  Majesties  Subjects, 

cxxxvii 


N.  Y.  Col. 
MSS.,  Vol. 
LII,  135- 


APPENDIX  NO.  I. 


that  have  lately  absented  themselves  from  their  Habitations  and 
the  usual  places  of  their  abode,  past  in  i6of. 

An  Act  for  preventing  Vexatious  Suits,  Settling  and  Quieting 
the  minds  of  His  Majesties  Peaceable  subjects  within  this  prov- 
ince, past  in  i6q|-. 

An  Act  against  Jesuists  and  popish  priests,  past  in  1700. 

An  Act  for  the  more  Regular  proceeding  in  the  Elections  of 
Representatives  for  the  Severall  Citties  &  Counties  within  this 
province,  past  in  1701. 

An  Act  for  Supplying  the  Defects  of  a  late  Act  Entituled  An 
Act  for  Settling  the  Militia,  past  in  1701. 

An  Act  for  Allowance  to  the  Representatives,  past  in  1701. 

An  Act  for  Repealing  An  Act  of  Generall  Assembly  of  this 
Province  Entituled  An  Act  for  Defraying  the  Publick  and  Neces- 
sary Charge  throughout  this  Province  for  Maintaining  the  poor  & 
preventing  Vagabonds,  Except  so  much  thereof  as  relates  to  Vaga- 
bonds and  for  appointing  more  Effectuall  means  for  Defraying  the 
publick  and  necessary  Charges  in  Each  City  and  County  and  for 
maintaining  the  poor,  past  in  1701. 

An  Act  for  the  Settling  and  Amending  the  Highways  and  Roads 
in  the  County  of  Ulster,  past  in  1701. 

An  Act  for  regulating  Fences  in  the  County  of  Ulster,  past  in 
1 70 1. 

An  Act  for  Destroying  of  Wolves  within  this  province,  past  in 
1702. 

An  Act  for  Encouragemen1  of  a  Grammer  Free  School  in  the 
City  of  New  York,  past  in  1702. 

An  Act  for  the  Continuing  the  Revenue,  past  in  1702. 

An  Act  to  Ascertain  the  Assize  of  Casks,  Weight  Measures  & 
Bricks  within  this  Colony,  past  in  1703. 

An  Act  for  the  better  Explaining  and  more  Effectuall  puting  in 
Execution  an  Act  of  General  Assembly  made  in  the  3d  Year  of  the 
Reigne  of  their  late  Majesties  King  William  &  Queen  Mary  En- 
tituled An  Act  for  Defraying  of  the  Publick  and  Necessary  Charges 
throughout  this  Province  &  for  Maintaining  the  poor  and  prevent- 
ing Vagabonds,  past  in  1  703. 

An  Act  to  Repeal  the  last  Clause  in  an  Act  of  Assembly  En- 
tituled an  Act  for  the  Quieting  and  Settling  the  Disorders  that 
have  lately  happened  within  this  province,  and  for  the  Establishing 
and  Securing  Their  Maties.  present  Government  Against  the  Like 
Disorders  for  the  future,  past  in  1 704. 

cxxxviii 


APPENDIX  NO.  I. 


An  Act  Granting  Sundry  Priviledges  and  Powers  to  the  Rector 
and  Inhabitants  of  the  City  of  New  York  of  the  Communion  of 
the  Church  of  England  as  by  law  Established,  past  in  1704. 

An  Act  for  the  Better  Laying  out  Regulating  Clearing  &  pre- 
serving publique  Common  High  Ways  in  this  Colony,  and  for  the 
Erecting  and  Building  a  County  Goal  and  County  House  in  the 
County  of  Richmond,  past  in  1704. 

Ax  Act  for  Defraying  the  Common  and  Necessary  Charge  in 
the  Mannor  of  Renslarwick  in  the  County  of  Albany,  past  in  1705. 

Which  said  Laws  having  been  perused  and  Considered  by  the 
Lords  Commissioners  of  Trade  and  Plantations,  and  presented 
by  their  Lordships  to  this  Board  with  their  Humble  Opinion,  that 
the  said  Laws  be  Confirmed,  Her  Majesty  this  day  takeing  the 
same  into  Consideration,  is  Graciously  pleased  with  the  Advice 
of  Her  Privy  Councill  to  declare  Her  Approbation  of  the  above- 
said  Laws  and  pursuant  to  Her  Mats.  Royall  pleasure  thereupon, 
the  said  Laws  are  hereby  Confirmed  finally  Enacted  and  Ratified 
accordingly. 

Edward  Southwell. 


cxxxix 


APPENDIX  No.  II. 


( Table  of  the  Laws,  Confirmed  or  Otherwise.)  1 


i  st  Act,  page 

1 

Confirmed  11  May,  1697.  Baskett. 

See  notes  2,         2d  " 

2— 

6.  . 

Expired  1693. 

24,  infra.            ^  „ 

6- 

7- 

Left  probationary.  Baskett. 

4th  " 

7- 

8. 

Confirmed  11  May,  1697.  Baskett. 

5th  " 

8- 

10 

.Confirmed  11  May,  1697.  Baskett. 

6th  " 

10- 

15 

Confirmed  11  May,  1697.    G.  H.  Moore. 

7th  " 

15- 

19 

Repealed  11  May,  1697. 

N.  B.   This  act  is  printed  as  in  force  in  the  editions 
of  1710  (and  consequently  in  those  of  1713,  I7!6,  and 
1719,  as  the  first  72  pages  of  all  three  are  the  sheets  of 
the  1710)  and  1726.    It  is  printed  in  full  in  Baskett 
(p.  2),  but  with  a  side-note  of  its  repeal. 

8th  " 

i  < 

19 

Confirmed  11  May,  1697.    G.  H.  Moore. 

9th  '• 

<  c 

20- 

2 1 

Expired  1694. 

10th 

*  c 

2 1  - 

25 

Expired  1693. 

Tower 
Catalogue, 
No.  609. 

Appendix 
No.  1.  supra. 


Tower 

Catalogue, 
No.  624. 


Tower 
Catalogue, 
No.  627. 


1  The  references  in  this  table  are  intended  to  refer  to  the  following  works : 

Baskett   "Acts  of  Assembly,  passed  in  the  Province  of  New  York,  from  1691 

to  1718.    London,  Printed  by  John  Baskett.  .   .  .  MDCCXIX." 

G.  H.  MOORE  Manuscript  annotations  by  the  Doctor,  who  was  a  learned  Americanist, 

in  a  copy  of  Van  Schaack's  edition  now  in  the  Tower  Collection.  With 
the  exception  noted  under  Act  29th,  all  his  confirmations  are  cited  upon 
the  authority  of  "Colonial  MSS.,  XLI,  65." 

L.  &  S  Laws  of  New-York,  from  The  Year  1691,  to  175 1,  inclusive.  Published 

according  to  an  ACT  of  the  GENERAL  Assembly.  New-York.  Printed 
by  James  Parker,  Printer  to  the  Government,  at  the  New  Printing- 
office,  in  Beaver-Street,  MDCCLII.  (This  is  commonly  known  as 
Volume  I  of  the  Revision  of  the  Laws  of  New-York  by  William  Liv- 
ingston and  William  Smith,  Junior,  and  is  cited  "  L.  &  S.,  I".) 

Van  SCHAACK  Laws  of  New-York  from  The  Year  1691,  to  1773  inclusive.  Published 

according  to  an  Act  of  the  General  Assembly.  Volume  the  First.  New- 
York:  Printed  by  Hugh  Gaine,  Printer  to  the  King's  Most  Excellent 
Majesty  in  the  Province  of  New- York,  MDCCLXXIV.  (This  is  Vol.  I 
of  the  Revision  of  the  Laws  of  New-York  by  Peter  Van  Schaack.) 

cxl 


APPENDIX  NO.  II. 


nth  Act,  page  26-27. 
12th    "      "  27-30 
13th    "      "  30 
14th    "      "  31~33 


Confirmed  11  May,  1697. 
Expired  1692. 
Confirmed  11  May,  1697. 


G.  H.  Moore. 


Baskett. 


15th 


1 6th 
17th 


1 8th 
19th 
20th 
2 1  st 

22d 

23d 

24th 

25th 

26th 

27th 

28th 


29th 


30th 


31st 


34-39 


39-  40. 

40-  43 


43-46 
46-51 

52 

53-57 

57-  58. 

58-  64. 
64-68. 
69-72 . 
72-74 

74-77 
77-79- 


79 


"  80-81 


81-83 


This  act  is  marked  repealed  in  the  Bradford  editions 
of  1710,  1726,  and  in  Baskett.  Moore  makes  no  com- 
ment.   Livingston  and  Smith  call  it  obsolete. 

Repealed  by  Act  of  Assembly  19  April, 
1699. 

Moore  makes  no  comment;  but  the  act  must  have 
been  before  the  Privy  Council  on  n  May,  1697. 

Confirmed  20  May,  1708.  Baskett. 
"Obsolete."  Baskett. 

See  the  difference  in  title  given  in  Livingston  and 
Smith. 

Confirmed  11  May,  1697.  Baskett. 
"Obsolete."    L.  &  S. 
Confirmed  11  May,  1697.  G.H.Moore. 
"Obsolete."    L.  &  S. 
.  Expired  1692. 

Continued  by  Chap.  34  of  L.  &  S. 
.  Continued  by  Chap.  54  of  L.  &  S. 

Confirmed  May  11,  1697.  Baskett. 
.  Confirmed  May  n,  1697.  Baskett. 
.  Continued  by  Chap.  77  of  L.  &  S. 
.Confirmed  May  11,  1697.    G.  H.  Moore. 

This  act  is  omitted  by  Livingston  and  Smith  and 
Van  Schaack. 

Confirmed  11  May,  1697.  Baskett. 

G.  H.  Moore  notes,  "  See  Colonial  Entry  Book,  State 
Paper  Office,  No.  ioi." 

.Confirmed  11  May,  1697.    G.  H.  Moore. 

In  the  editions  of  1710,  1726,  and  Baskett,  the  title 
only  of  this  act  is  given,  as  if  it  was  not  in  force.  Liv- 
ingston and  Smith,  however,  considered  it  in  force,  and 
so  did  Van  Schaack. 

.Confirmed  11  May,  1697.  Baskett. 

Livingston  and  Smith  erroneously  give  the  date  of  the 
passage  of  this  act  as  24  March,  1693,  and  of  the  32d 
Act  as  10  March,  1693,  i.  e.,  1697.  (That  the  acts 
which  were  passed  on  26  March,  1694,  were  not  in- 
cluded in  the  "Bradford  of  1694,"  goes  to  show  that 
this  volume  here  reproduced  was  issued  early  in  the  year. ) 

cxli 


See  Appen 
dix  No.  Ill 
infra. 


Appendix 
No.  Ill, 
infra. 


3  2d  Act,  page  84 
33d     "      "  1 


L.  &  S., 
Chap.  67. 

See  Doc  rel. 
Col.  Hist. 
N.  Y.,  VII, 
454-5- 

34th     "        "  I 


-  rfl»  »<  /  Six  unnum-  \ 
30ul  ^bered  pages .) 


APPENDIX  NO.  II. 

.  .  .Confirmed  11  May,  1697.    G.  H.  Moore. 

3.  .  ."An  Act  for  Reftraining  and  Punishing 

Privateers  and  Pyrates."  Repealed 
20  May,  1708.  Baskett. 

This  act  was  supplied  by  an  act  passed  19  April,  1699. 
The  act  of  1699  was  repealed  by  the  crown,  5  Sept., 
1700,  reviving  the  act  of  1692.  Livingston  and  Smith 
give  the  act  of  1699  as  in  force,  and  proceedings  were 
had  under  it  in  1761. 

4.  .  ."An  Act  for  Granting  to  their  Majefties 

the  Rate,"  etc.    Expired.  Baskett. 
.  .  .  "An    Act    for    raifing    fix  Thoufand 
Pound,"  etc.    Expired.  Baskett. 


cxlii 


APPENDIX  No.  III. 


( List  of  Sessions  ;  and  Table  of  Laws  in  the 
later  Revisions.) 

The  First  Assembly  held  in  New -York  after  the  year  1691  had 
but  one  legislative  session,  divided  into  four  sub-sessions,  or  "sit- 
tings." The  first  sitting  began  9  April,  1691,  and  adjourned  18 
May,  1 69 1.  The  second  sitting  began  8  September,  1691,  and 
adjourned  2  October,  1691.     The  third  sitting  began  19  April, 

1692,  and  adjourned  29  April,  1692.  The  fourth  sitting  began 
16  August,  1692,  and  adjourned  10  September,  1692.  The  First 
Assembly  was  dissolved  13  September,  1692. 

The  Second  Assembly,  after  1691,  had  but  one  session,  divided 
into  two  sub-sessions,  or  sittings.  The  first  sitting  began  24 
October,  1692,  and  adjourned  14  November,  1692.  The  second 
sitting  began  20  March,  1692-93,  and  adjourned  10  April,  1693, 
during  which  time  three  acts  were  passed.  The  Second  Assem- 
bly was  dissolved  27  July,  1693. 

The  Third  Assembly,  after  1691,  had  but  one  legislative  session, 
and  sat  continuously  from  7  September,  1693,  to  22  September, 

1693.  This  assembly  was  dissolved  16  November,  1693. 

The  following  Table  shows  where  the  acts  in  the  facsimile  may 
be  found  in  the  subsequent  Revisions  of  the  Laws  of  the  province 
by  Messrs.  Livingston  and  Smith  and  by  Peter  Van  Schaack,  Esq.: 

This  Volume.  Livingston  and  Smith.  Van  Schaack. 

Act,  p.    1   Ch.    I.  ..  Ch.  I. 

««    «    2   "   IV.  .  "  IV. 

"    "    6   "     II.  .  .  "  II. 

"    "    7   "  III.  .  .  "  III. 

»    «    8   "   VI.  .  .  "  VI. 

"    "10   "    V.  "  V. 

"    "15   "    X.  .  .  "  x. 

«<    "19   "  VII.  .  .  "  VII. 

cxliii 


See  note, 
p.  lxxxv, 
supra. 


Jour,  of  Leg. 
Council  I, 
p.  xxxi,  and 
p.  24. 


Jour,  of  Leg. 
Council  I, 
PP-25,34,4o, 
and  p.  xxxi. 


Jour,  of  Leg. 
Council  I, 
pp.  41,48- 


See  Appen- 
dix No.  II, 
supra. 


APPENDIX  NO.  III. 


This  Volume. 

Act,  p.  20  

"    "  21   

"    "  26  

"  "27  

"  "30  

"  "3i   

"  "34  

"  "39  

"  "40  

"  "43  

"  "46  

"  "52  

"  "53  

"  "57  

"  "58  

"  "64  

"  "69  

"  "72  

"  "74  

"  "77  

"    "79   •••• 

"  "80  

"81   

*      "84  ••;  

"An  Act  for  Reftraining  and 
Punishing  Privateers  and 
Pyrates  "  

"An  Act  for  Granting  to  their 
Majefties  the  Rate  of  One 
Penny  per  Pound,"  etc. . 

"An  Act  for  raifing  fix  Thou- 
fand  Pound,"  etc  

"A  Catalogue  of  Fees"  (p.  85)  . 


;on  and  Smith.  Van  Schaack. 


:h. 

IX.  '  . 

Ch. 

IX. 

(i 

XI.  . 

M 

XI. 

<< 

XII.  . 

tt 

XII. 

VIII.  . 

<< 

VIII. 

XIV.  . 

<< 

XIV. 

it 

XIII.  . 

II 

XIII. 

XVI. 

II 

XVI. 

<  ( 

XVII.  . 

II 

XVII. 

XV. 

II 

XV. 

(< 

XVIII.  . 

II 

XVIII. 

1 < 

XX. 

11 

XX. 

XIX.  . 

11 

XIX. 

(< 

XXII.  . 

II 

XXII. 

XXIII.  . 

II 

XXIII. 

XXIV.  . 

II 

XXIV. 

«< 

XXVIII.  . 

II 

XXVIII. 

XXVI.  . 

II 

XXVI. 

XXVII. 

1  i 

XXVII. 

XXV.  . 

1 1 

XXV. 

Omitted. 

II 

Omitted. 

<  < 

XXXI.  . 

1 1 

XXXI. 

<  < 

XXXII. 

1 1 

XXXII. 

XXXVI. 

II 

XXXIII. 

1 < 

XXXIV.  . 

II 

XXXIV. 

XXI.  . 

II 

XXI. 

u 

XXIX.  . 

II 

XXIX. 

XXX.  . 

II 

XXX. 

t  < 

Omitted. 

II 

Omitted. 

cxliv 


APPENDIX  No.  IV. 


(Material  for  a  Biography  and  a  Bibliography 
of  Bradford.) 


The  main  source  of  the  biography  of  William  Bradford  is  still  the  well- 
known  address  by  John  William  Wallace,  Esq.,  delivered  at  the  celebration, 
by  the  New- York  Historical  Society,  of  the  two  hundredth  birthday  of 
Bradford,  20  May,  1863.  Mr.  Wallace's  material  has  been  supplemented 
by  a  recent  chapter  from  the  pen  of  Charles  R.  Hildeburn,  Esq.,  of  Phila- 
delphia. A  free  use  of  both  these  sources,  implemented  by  notes  taken 
from  a  recent  address  delivered  before  the  Grolier  Club,  has  been  made 
in  compiling  the  following  biographical  notice: 

William  Bradford  was  born  20  May,  1663,  in  the  parish  of  Barwell, 
Leicestershire,  England.  He  was  the  son  of  William  Bradford,  husband- 
man, and  Ann  his  wife,  as  appears  in  part  from  our  subject's  first  marriage 
certificate,  and  in  part  from  the  records  of  St.  Mary's  Church,  Barwell, 
where  he  was  baptized  30  May,  1663.  The  father  of  William  Bradford 
died  in  1668,  and  was  buried  in  Barwell  parish  churchyard  9  October,  1668. 
There  had  been  Bradfords  in  Leicestershire  from  early  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  but  no  more  of  the  printer's  ancestry  is  known.  The  famous 
founder  of  the  Quakers,  George  Fox,  mentions  in  his  journal  about  the  year 
1643  his  "cousin  Bradford."  As  Fox's  birthplace  is  five  or  six  miles  only 
from  Barwell,  this  may  indicate  some  kinship  to  the  printer  of  that  name, 
and  it  may  be  that  through  this  connection  William  Bradford  found  a  place 
in  the  establishment  of  the  great  Quaker  printer  of  that  day,  Andrew  Sowle, 
of  London,  whose  chief  business  was  with  the  Society  of  Friends.  It  is 
probable  that  William  Bradford  was  in  Sowle's  office  in  1679,  but,  unlike 
the  case  of  William's  brother,  John  Bradford,  there  is  no  record  of  his 
indentures  at  Stationers'  Hall.  That  William  Bradford  did  not  join  the 
company  was  probably  due  to  his  determination  to  emigrate  to  America 
before  the  expiration  of  his  apprenticeship. 

While  in  Sowle's  employment  Bradford  naturally  met  many  of  the  lead- 
ing "Friends"  of  that  day,  and  there  he  seems  to  have  attracted  the  notice 
of  William  Penn,  the  proprietor  of  Pennsylvania.    Penn  wished  his  charter 


Publication 
of  J.  Mun- 
sell,  Albany, 
N.  Y.,  1863. 

Memorial 
History  of 
the  City  of 
New-York,  I, 
Chapter  XV. 

Cf.  Memorial 
Hist.  City 
N.Y.,1,571; 
Wallace,  20. 


Memorial 
Hist.  City 
N.  Y.;  1, 572. 


1 1 


cxlv 


APPENDIX  NO.  IV. 


Memorial 
Hist.  City 
N.  Y.,I, 
572. 


Wallace's 
Address. 


Supra, 
p.  lxxxv. 


Supra, 
p.  lxxxvi. 


printed.  The  penalty  for  unlicensed  printing  was  then  heavy,  as  Sowle  had 
already  learned ;  and  the  risk  of  printing  the  charter  was  assumed  by  Brad- 
ford, who,  on  Sowle's  press,  produced  anonymously  his  first  work:  "The 
Frame  of  Government  of  the  Province  of  Pennsylvania  in  America:  Together 
with  certain  Laws  agreed  upon  in  England  by  the  Governour  and  Divers 
Freemen  of  the  aforesaid  Province.    Printed  in  the  year  1682." 

Of  Bradford's  life  in  London  little  else  is  known.  Until  the  expiration 
of  his  apprenticeship  in  1685,  he  remained  with  Sowle,  whose  daughter, 
Elizabeth,  he  married  at  Devonshire  meeting-house,  in  London,  on  28  April, 
1685.  It  has  been  asserted  that  he  was  one  of  Penn's  company  on  the 
"Welcome's"  first  voyage  to  Pennsylvania  in  1682.  It  is  not  only  unlikely 
that  it  was  our  printer,  as  he  was  not  then  out  of  his  apprenticeship,  but 
there  is  no  record  of  his  having  obtained  a  certificate  of  removal  from  the 
London  Quaker  meeting  prior  to  1685.  It  is  also  directly  at  variance  with 
the  tone  of  George  Fox's  letter  of  6th  month,  1685,  commending  him  to 
friends  in  Pennsylvania  and  elsewhere.  The  companion  of  Penn  was,  beyond 
a  doubt,  another  William  Bradford,  who  settled  and  became  a  man  of  some 
local  importance  in  Sussex  County,  now  part  of  Delaware.  William  Penn 
returned  to  England  in  1684,  and  it  may  be  inferred  from  Bradford's  state- 
ments in  1689  that  he  held  out  inducements  to  the  young  printer  which  led 
the  latter  to  emigrate  to  Pennsylvania.  Bradford  obtained  from  the  London 
meeting  a  certificate  of  removal  for  himself  and  wife,  dated  12  August,  1685, 
which  was  read  to  the  quarterly  meeting  in  Philadelphia  on  the  4th  of  the 
following  January.  The  date  of  his  arrival  in  America  is  thus  shown  to 
have  been  some  time  between  the  October  and  the  January  quarterly  meet- 
ing. His  printing-office  and  residence  appear  to  have  been  first  in  Phila- 
delphia; then  in  Oxford  Township,  Philadelphia  County,  whence  he  seems 
to  have  removed  his  office  back  to  Philadelphia  in  1688,  adding  to  it 
a  book-shop  and  general  store.  After  Bradford  had  fallen  on  difficulties, 
Governor  Fletcher  induced  the  Assembly  of  New-York  to  vote  a  salary  of 
£40  per  annum  to  any  printer  who  would  locate  in  that  province,  and  by 
this  inducement  Bradford  was  led  to  remove  to  New- York,  as  stated  in  the 
text.  The  first  warrant  for  his  salary  as  printer  to  King  William  and  Queen 
Mary  is  dated  1  October,  1693,  ar)d  was  for  six  months  due  on  the  10th  of 
the  same  month,  thus  showing  that  on  10  April,  1693,  he  had  complied 
with  the  terms  of  the  resolution  and  introduced  the  art  and  mystery  of  his 
craft  into  New- York.  His  printing-office  and  shop,  at  the  sign  of  the  Bible, 
as  his  imprints  tell  us,  were  in  a  house  on  the  north  side  of  Dock,  now 
Pearl,  street,  near  Hanover  Square,  in  the  city  of  New-York.  Thus  it 
appears  that  William  Bradford,  the  printer  of  the  laws  now  reproduced  in 
this  volume,  began  his  work  in  New- York  about  two  centuries  ago.  As 
already  stated  in  the  course  of  the  Historical  Introduction,  Bradford  died 
at  New-York  on  23  May,  1752,  in  the  90th  year  of  his  age.  For  fifty  years 
he  had  been  a  notable  figure  in  the  life  of  the  Province  of  New- York.  He 
was  buried  in  Trinity  Parish  churchyard. 


cxlvi 


APPENDIX  NO.  IV. 


Material  for  a  Bradford  bibliography  is  to  be  found  mainly  in  the  writings  Memorial 
of  Mr.  Hildeburn.     His  recent  chapter,  "Printing  in  New- York  in  the      ^1Sy  Cjlty 
Seventeenth  Century,"  contains  a  valuable  Bibliography  of  the  New-York      Chap.' XV. 
Press  in  the  Seventeenth  Century.    It  is  announced  as  taken  from  the  advance 
sheets  of  an  unpublished  work  entitled  "The  Issues  of  the  Press  in  New- 
York,  1693-1752."    The  "  Catalogue  of  Books  printed  by  William  Bradford 
and  other  Printers  in  the  Middle  Colonies,  exhibited  at  the  Grolier  Club  in 
commemoration  of  the  Bicentennial  of  the  Introduction  of  Printing  into 
New- York,  April  14  to  21,  1893,"  "A  List  of  the  Issues  of  the  Press  in  New- 
York,  1693-1752,"  "The  Charlemagne  Tower  Collection  of  Colonial  Laws,"  Philadelphia, 
and  "The  Issues  of  the  Press  in  Pennsylvania,"  all  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Hilde-    c0u  ConT-"" 
burn,  will  be  found  useful  to  bibliographers  of  Bradford.  pany,  1889. 

The  New- York  Historical  Society,  on  8  April,  1893,  celebrated  the  "  200th 
Anniversary  of  the  Introduction  of  Printing  in  New-York,"  and  are  about 
to  publish  the  proceedings  on  that  occasion.  These  may  possibly  add  some- 
thing to  the  material  for  a  bibliography  of  Bradford.  The  1694  edition  of 
the  New-York  Laws,  now  reproduced  in  this  volume,  was  the  first  consid- 
erable book  published  in  New- York,  although  not  the  first  publication  in 
order  of  time. 


cxlvii 


GENERAL  INDEX  TO  THE  INTRODUCTION 
AND  NOTES. 


Aborigines,  rights  of,  in  soil,  iii. 

Accession  of  James  II.,  lxvi.  See  King  James  II. 

Achter  Cul,  viii. 

Administration  of  Colonies,  c. 

Albany,  vi,  vii,  xxiii,  xli,  cxv,  cxvii,  cxxi. 

Allowance  to  Representatives,  cxv. 

Amesfoort  (Flatlands),  xxiv. 

Amsterdam  (Old),  xvi. 

Andros,  Governor  Edmund,  lxi ;  commission  of, 
lxi ;  report  of,  lxii. 

Articles  of  surrender  of  New  Netherland,  effect  • 
of,  xlix,  xcix. 

Assembly  of  1683-4-5,  Ixv,  lxvi,  lxvii,  lxviii. 

Assembly  of  1691-3,  lxxvi;  resolution  of,  in 
1691,  lxxviii ;  effects  of  this  resolution,  lxxix ; 
conflict  of  opinion  on  its  resolution  in  1 69 1, 
Ixxx ;  modern  view  of  resolution,  lxxxi ;  exam- 
ination of  resolution,  Ixxxii ;  importance  of 
resolution,  lxxxiii ;  government  by,  xcix  ;  its 
laws,  how  treated,  ci;  what  evidence  of  laws 
of,  cii ;  where  its  acts  are  deposited,  cii ;  pro- 
cedure of,  ciii ;  its  laws,  how  operative,  civ. 

Assembly  of  Leisler,  lxx. 

Baltimore,  Lord,  xvi. 
Bergen,  xxiv. 
Beverswyck,  viii,  xxiii. 

Boundaries  of  New  Netherland,  xiii,  xiv,  xv; 
boundaries  of  counties,  cxix. 

Boundary  Question,  incidental  to  new  coun- 
tries, xv. 

Bradford,  William,  i;  importance  of  Bradford's 
press,  ii;  first  public  printer,  lxxxv;  sketch  of, 
lxxxvi,  cxlv  ;  material  for  biography  of,  cxlv ; 
material  for  bibliography  of,  cxlv. 

Breda.    See  Treaty  of. 

Breuckelen,  xxiv. 

British  Plantations,  lxiv. 

Brockholes,  Lieutenant  Anthony,  lxii. 

Burgher-recht  in  New  Netherland,  xxviii,  xxix, 
note. 

Burgomasters  of  New  Amsterdam,  xxviii,  xli ; 

"  and  Schepens,  Court  of,  xxix. 

Bushwyck,  xxiv. 


Cabot,  Sebastian,  ix. 
Cabots,  ix. 

Canterbury,  Archbishop  of,  cxxix. 
Capitulation.    See  Articles  of  surrender. 
Charles  II.,  King,  xxxix.    See  King  Charles  II. 
Charter,  First  Trading,  vi,  vii. 
Charter  of  Dutch  West  India  Co.,  vii,  xviii. 
Charter  of  Freedoms  and  Exemptions,  xxiii, 

xxxi,  xxxvi. 
Charters,  Dutch  Trading,  vii. 
Church  of  England,  cxxix. 
Church  in  New-York,  cxxix. 
Claims  of  the  Dutch  to  New  Netherland,  ix. 
Colonies,  Modern  Law  of  English,  ciii,  note. 
Colony,  not  a  State,  ii. 

Common  Law  of  Colony,  how  established,  v; 
theories  concerning  the  introduction  of  com- 
mon law,  v.    See  Real  Property  Law. 

Common  Law  of  England,  theories  concerning 
its  introduction  in  colonies,  v,  xllii,  xlvi ;  how 
introduced,  xc;  effect  of,  on  colonial  institu- 
tions, xci. 

Common  Law  of  New  Netherland,  ii,  xvii,  xviii. 
Condition  of  Jurisprudence  in  New- York,  lxxxix. 
Connecticut  River,  xiv,  xv. 

Conquest  of  New  Netherland,  determined  on, 
xxxviii,  xxxix. 

Consolidation  of  Colonies,  lxix. 

Constitution  of  New  Netherland,  xxii. 

Constitution  of  New-York  in  1691,  xcix. 

Constitution  of  British  Colonies,  gradually  de- 
veloped, lxiv.  See  Note  No.  7,  cxi. 

Conveyancing  in  New- York,  xciv. 

Counties  of  New-York,  cxviii. 

Courts,  of  New  Netherland  first  established,  xxi ; 
of  Director-General  and  Council,  xxi,  xxii, 
xxv ;  Admiralty,  xxi,  xxix;  Prerogative,  or 
Surrogate's,  xxi,  xxix  ;  Town  Courts,  xxiii, 
xxiv;  of  Burgomasters  and  Schepens,  xxix; 
Baron  or  Patroon's,  xxxii,  xxxiv,  xcv;  of 
Arbitration,  xxii. 

Courts  in  New-York,  Court  of  Assizes,  estab- 
lished, liii;  regulated,  liii ;  held  in  1665,  liv  ; 
dissolved,  cvi ;  Oyer  and  Terminer,  cvi ;  Ju- 


II* 


cxlix 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


dicial  establishment  in  i69l,xcviii;  Supreme 
Court,  cv,  cxxiii ;  Chancery,  cvi,  cxxiv;  Com- 
mon Pleas,  cv,  cxxiii;  Justices  of  the  Peace, 
cv,  cxxiii ;  Pie-Powder  Courts,  cxxv. 

Delaware  River,  viii. 

Diplomatic  Intercourse  about  New  Nether- 
land,  xi. 

Discovery  and  Occupation,  effect  of,  iii,  vi ;  by 
the  Dutch,  vi ;  by  the  English,  ix. 

Dispute  over  Boundary,  xiv. 

Dongan,  Thomas,  Governor,  lxv,  Ixix. 

Dongan  Assemblies,  lxviii,  cxvi,  note. 

Downing,  Sir  George,  xxxviii. 

*'  Duke's  Laws,"  or  Duke  of  York's  Laws  promul- 
gated, liv;  the  work  of  Nicolls,  liv,  note  2 ;  title 
of,  liv,  notel;  printed,  liv;  originally  where, 
lv;  went  into  effect  when,  lv;  scope  of,  lvi; 
confirmed,  lviii ;  relating  to  conveyancing, 
xciv ;  cited  in  Notes  on  the  Laws,  cv-cxxxiv. 

Dutch  Charters,  vii;  interregnum,  lviii. 

Dutch,  claimed  territory,  vi. 

Dutch  land  law  changed,  xcii. 

Dutch  language  in  New-York,  lxxxix. 

Dutch  Jurisprudence,  xvii.  See  Law  of  New 
Netherland. 

Dutch  Settlements,  nature  of,  xvi. 

Dutch  Transports,  xxxvi. 

Dutch  West  India  Company,  vii,  xix,  xxx,  xxxix, 
xli. 

Early  laws  of  New-York,  ii. 

*' Eendracht,"  affair  of  ship,  xiii. 

English,  aggression  of,  xxxix. 

English  law  in  colonial  empire,  v;  theories 

concerning  its  introduction,  v,  xc. 
English  Revolution,  lxx. 
English  statutes  in  force  in  New-York,  xcvi. 
English  title  to  lands  occupied  by  Dutch,  ix,  xi. 
Executive  of  New  Netherland,  xxiv. 
Established  Church,  cxxix. 

Fairs  and  Markets,  cxxv,  cxxvi. 
Fences  and  Highways,  cvii. 
Fletcher,  Governor  Benjamin,  lxxxiv. 
Fort  Orange,  vii.    See  Albany. 
Freemen  of  the  Cities,  xxix. 
Frontenac,  Count,  cxvii. 

Government  of  English  Plantations,  c. 
Government  in  New-York  in  1691,  xcix. 
Greenwich  Bay,  xv. 

Hartford,  xv  ;  treaty,  xv. 
Hempstead,  xxiii ;  meeting  at,  liii,  liv. 
Hudson,  Henry,  vi. 

Hudson,  or  Hudson's,  River.    See  Rivers. 

Importance  of  early  laws,  ii. 

Index  of  Laws  in  this  volume,  where  found  in 

later  revisions.     See  Appendix  No.  II,  cxl ; 

Appendix  No.  Ill,  cxliii. 


Indians,  title  of,  to  soil,  iii;  title  to  be  extin- 
guished, xcii ;  if  title  not  extinguished,  patent 
not  void,  xciii. 

Intestate  succession,  xxxvii. 

Jamaica,  xxiv. 

James  II.    See  King  James  II. 

Judicial  Establishment  in  New  Netherland.  See 

Courts  of  New  Netherland. 
Jus  Patronatus,  xxxiv. 
Jus  Postliminii,  lix. 

Kidd,  William,  cxvii. 

Kieft,  William,  Director-General,  xxiii,  xxv. 

King  Charles  II.,  grant  of,  to  Duke  of  York, 
xxxix,  xci ;  declares  war  against  States-Gen- 
eral, xli ;  feigns  ownership  of  New  Nether- 
land, 1;  war  by,  with  United  Province  closed, 
lviii ;  grants  amnesty  to  Dutch,  lix ;  grants 
new  patent,  lx  ;  revokes  commission  of  coun- 
cil for  foreign  plantations,  lxiv ;  dies  and  suc- 
ceeded by  Duke  of  York,  lxvi. 

Kingston,  xxiv. 

King  James  II.,  ascends  the  throne,  lxiv;  effect 
of  his  accession,  lxvi ;  new  assembly  of,  lxvii ; 
consolidation  of  colonies  by,  lxix;  commission 
to  Dongan,  lxix. 

King  William  III.     See  William  and  Mary. 

King  William's  War,  cxvii. 

Law  of  England  introduced  in  New-York,  xliii, 
xc.  See  Laws  of  New-  York. 

Law  of  nations  in  fifteenth  century,  ii. 

Law  of  New  Netherland,  xvii,  xix,  xxi ;  relating 
to  land, xxxvi;  relating  to  intestate  succession, 
xxxvii ;  relating  to  land  changed,  xcii ;  vir- 
tually repealed  by  1691,  xcix;  relating  to 
mortgages  changed,  cxiv. 

Laws  of  the  New-York  Assembly,  ci.  See  As- 
sembly. 

Laws  of  New- York,  English  laws,  the  standard 
of,  xc ;  how  affected  by  English  statutes,  xc, 
xcvi,  xcvii;  operative  until  disallowed  by  the 
crown,  civ;  transmitted  to  England  for  ap- 
proval, c, ci;  procedure  in  England  on, ci.  See 
Real  Property  Law  and  Law  of  New  Nether- 
land. 

Legislature  of  the  province,  power  of,  ciii ;  pro- 
cedure of,  ciii ;  journals  of,  ciii.    See  Assembly. 
Leisler,  Jacob,  lxx,  lxxi,  cv,  cxviii. 
London  Company,  xiii. 
London,  Bishop  of,  cxxix. 

Long   Island,   viii,  xv,  xxiii,   xxxviii;  name 

changed,  cxxviii. 
Lord  Proprietor.    See  York,  Duke  of. 
Lovelace,  Governor  Francis,  lvii;  commission 

to,  lviii ;  brought  confirmation  of  laws,  lviii. 

Manhattan  Island,  vii,  viii,  xvi,  xvii,  xxiv,  xxvii, 
xxviii,  xxxviii ;  purchased  from  Indians,  xxx. 


cl 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


Manors,  xxxiv ;  perpetuated  in  New-York,  xcv; 
grants  of  to  Van  Rensselaers,  xcvi,  note;  con- 
firmed, cvii.    See  Patroons. 

Material  for  a  Biography  and  a  Bibliography  of 
Bradford,  cxlv. 

Mauritius  River,  vi. 

Midwout,  xxiv. 

Middleburgh,  xxiv. 

Militia  Law,  note  on,  cix. 

Minuit,  Director-General  Peter,  xxiv,  xxv. 

Mohawk  River,  viii. 


Nature  of  settlements,  viii,  xvi,  xxx. 

Nature  of  the  Government  of  New-York,  lxxiv. 

Netherlands,  vii,  ix,  xi. 

Newtown,  xxiv. 

New  Amsterdam,  viii,  xvii,  xxii,  xxiii,  xxiv,  xxv, 

xxvii,  xxviii,  xxix,  xxxviii,  xxxix,  xli,  xlix. 
New  Amstel,  viii. 

New  Constitution  in  New-York,  lxxiii. 
New  England,  viii. 
New  France,  vi,  xiii. 

New  Netherland,  first  named,  vii ;  population 
of,  vii ;  boundaries  of,  xiii,  xiv ;  title  to,  ix. 

New  Netherland,  Law  of,  xix  ;  claims  to  terri- 
tory of,  ix,  x,  xi;  see  "  Law  of,"  see  "Courts 
of,"  xxi,  xxii ;  constitution  of,  xxii ;  execu- 
tive of,  xxiv;  intestate  succession  in,  xxxvii; 
boundaries  of,  xiii,  xiv,  xv;  settlements  in 
1664,  xxxviii.     Population  of,  see  Population. 

New  Orange,  lviii.    See  New  Amsterdam. 

New  Utrecht,  xxiv. 

New-York,  city  of,  named,  xli ;  renamed  New 

Orange,  lviii ;     streets   of,  regulated,   cxx ; 

charters  of,  cxxi;  account  of,  cxx. 
New-York,  Province  of,  named,  xli;  new  con- 
stitution of,  lxxiii;    law  of,  xlvi,  xlvii;  see 

Real  Property  Law  in,  xci ;    nature  of  its 

government,  lxxiv  ;  the  governor  of,  lxxv. 
Nicolls,  Governor  Richard,  xli ;  commission  of, 

xlvii;  instructions  to,  xlvii;  proposes  taxes, 

liii;  remodels  government  of  city,  cxxi. 
Nieuw  Haerlem,  xxiv,  xxxviii. 
Notes  and  Observations  on  the  Laws : 
Note  on  Law,  p.    I    of  Facsimile.  .  .  .cv. 

"    "     "    p.   2    "         "       ...  .cv. 

««    "     "    p.   6    "         "        •  •  .cvii. 

«    «     "    p.   7   "         "       .  .  .cvii. 

"    "     "    p.  8   "         "       ...  .cviii. 

"    "     "    p.  9   "         "       ...  .cix. 

•<    <•     "    p.  10   "         "       ...  -  cix. 

 «    p.  15    "         "       ...  cxi. 

«    «     «    p.  19    "         "       ...  .cxv. 

.<    »     "    p.  20   "         "   cxv. 

«    •<     «    p.  21    "         "  .cxvi. 

«    "     "    p.  26   "         "   cxvi. 

"     "      "    p.  27    "  "       •  ■  .cxvii. 

<i     «      «    p.  30    "         "         •  .cxvii. 

h     «<      '•    p.  31    "         "         •  •  cxviii. 


Note  on  Law,  p.  34  of  Facsimile ....  cxviii. 

"    "  "  p.  39  "  "         ...  cxviii. 

  p.  40  "  "   cxx. 

"    "  "  P-  43  "  "   cxx. 

"     "  "  p.  46  "  "  .  .  .cxxii. 

"     "  "  p.  52  "  "  .  .  .cxxii. 

"    "  "  P-  53  "  "  cxxii. 

' p.  57  "  "  .  .  .cxxii. 

"    "  "  p.  58  "  t   cxxii. 

"     "  "  p.  64  "  "  ...  .cxxiii. 

"     "  "  p.  69  "  "  ...  .cxxv. 

"     "  "  p.  72  "  "         .  .cxxvi. 

"     "  "  p.  74  "  "  ...  .cxxvii. 

"    "  "  p.  77  "  "  ...cxxviii. 

"    *'  "  p.  79  "  "  •  •  ■  cxxviii. 

"     "  "  p.  80  "  "  ...  .cxxviii. 

"    "  "  p.  81  "  "  ...  .cxxix. 

"     "  "  p.  84  "  "  ...  cxxxi. 

Notes  on  the  Separate  Acts  cv. 

Orders  in  Council  (Appendix  No.  I)  approving 

Laws  in  this  volume,  cxxxv. 
Organization  of  government  in  New- York  by 

the  English,  liii. 
Orphan- masters,  xxviii. 

Parliament,  lxxii. 

Parliamentary  procedure  of  New- York  Legisla- 
ture, ciii. 

Partition  of  the  New  World,  ii. 

Patent  of  Duke  of  York  (of  1664),  xxxix;  (of 
1674),  lx.    See  York,  Duke  of. 

Patroons,  xxxi,  xxxii,  xxxiii,  xxxiv,  xcv,  xcvi. 

Personnel  of  the  Assembly,  lxxvii. 

Poor  Laws,  cviii. 

Population,  of  Albany,  lxxxviii;  of  New  Nether- 
land, vii,  viii;  in  1664,  xvii;  dwells  on  shores 
of  rivers,  viii ;  of  New  Amsterdam,  viii,  xvii ; 
of  Province  of  New- York,  lxxxviii;  of  city  of 
New-York,  lxxxviii ;  of  New  England,  viii ;  of 
Virginia,  viii ;  on  South  River,  viii;  of  Long 
Island,  viii,  lxxxix  ;  of  "  Five  Dutch  Towns," 
viii. 

Post-office,  cxxvii. 

Pownall,  Thomas,  lxxii. 

Prerogative,  Law  of,  1,  li,  lxxv,  cxxxii. 

Pretensions  of  the  English,  x. 

Printing  in  New- York,  i.  See  Bradford,  Wil- 
liam. Bibliographical  note,  cxlviii;  Appendix 
No.  IV,  cxlv. 

Privateers  and  Pyrates,  cxxxi. 

Privy  Council,  ci. 

Quakers,  cxvii. 

Quit-rents  in  New- York,  xciii. 

Real  Property  Law  in  New- York,  xci;  soc- 
age tenure  introduced,  xci,  xciii;  Dutch  law 
changed,  xcii,  xciii;  conveyancing  in  New- 
York,  xciv  ;  English  manorial  system  perpet- 


Cli 


I 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


uated,  xcv ;  incidents  of  socage  tenure,  xciii ; 
recording  of  deeds,  xciv,  cxiii,  sg.  See  note 
No.  7,  regarding  conveyances  of  femes  covert, 
cxiii.    See  Law  of  New  Netherland. 

Record  Depositories,  cii. 

Recording  of  deeds  required,  xciv,  cxiii,  sg. 

Rensselaer,  Kiliaen  van,  xxx. 

Rensselaerswyck,  xxxii,  xxxiv,  xcv,  xcvi. 

Representation  demanded,  lxiii. 

Representative  government  in  New- York,  lxv. 

Revenue  Acts,  notes  on,  cxvi. 

River,  Mauritius,  vi ;  Hudson,  vi,  xv ;  Mohawk, 
viii ;  Delaware,  or  South,  viii,  xiii,  xvi ;  Con- 
necticut, xiv ;  Norwalk,  xv. 

Roomsch-Hollandsche  Recht,  xviii. 

Royal  Swedish  South  Company,  xvi. 

Rustdorp,  xxiv. 

Schout  and  Schepens,  xxix. 

Seigniories  established  in  New  Netherland,  xxx. 
Self-government  of  New-York,  xcix. 
Sewers  regulated  in  New-York,  cxxi. 
Sloughter,  Governor  Henry,  lxxi,  lxxvi ;  com- 
mission of,  lxxi,  cxi ;  death  of,  lxxxiv. 
Socage  tenure.    See  Real  Property  Law  in  New- 
York. 

Staten  Island,  viii,  xxiv. 
Statutes  of  England  cited: 

9  Anne,  c.  10  cxxviii. 

12  Car.  II.,  c.  18.  .  .  xxxix. 
12  Car.  II.,  c.  24....XCU. 
13-14  Car.  II.,  c.    3.  .  .  ex. 

13-14  Car.  II.,  c.  12  dx. 

15  Car.  II  exxvii. 

15  Car.  II.,  c.    4  .  .  .ex. 

26  Hen.  VIII., c.  I  .  exxx. 

27  Hen.VIII.,c.i6.  . .  .xciv. 

Magna  Charta   cxiii. 

Petition  of  Right  .  .  cxiii. 

"  Mutiny  Act,"  I,  W.  and  M.,  c.  5,  cxi. 

6-  7  William  III  lxxi. 

7-  8  William  III.,  c.  22  lxxii. 
Statutes  of  Parliament,  xcvi. 


Statutes  of  Parliament,  what  extended  here,  xcvi, 

xcvii.    See  Laws  of  New-  York. 
Streets,  regulated  in  City  of  New- York,  cxx. 
Stuyvesant,   Director-General  Peter,  xv,  xxii, 

xxv,  xxvi. 
Surrogates,  xxviii. 

Table  of  Laws  in  this  volume,  confirmed  or 

otherwise,  cxi. 
Table  of  the  Laws,  in  later  revisions,  cxliii. 
Title,  of  the  aborigines,  to  soil,  iii,  xxx;  of 

the  Dutch  to  New  Netherland,  vi,  vii,  ix,  xxi, 

xxx;  dispute  about,  v,  x ;  of  the  English,  ix; 

of  the  English  disputed,  x,  xi. 
Transports,  Dutch,  xxxvi. 
Treaty  of  Breda,  xvi,  xli,  lvii. 
Treaty  of  Westminster,  1  viii,  lix,  exxii. 
Trinity  Church,  exxix. 
Twiller,  Director  van,  xxv. 

Vagabonds,  law  about,  cviii. 

Van  der  Donck,  xxxii. 

Van  Rensselaer,  Kiliaen.    See  Rensselaer. 

Verrazano,  vi. 

Versch,  or  Fresh  Water,  River,  xiv.    See  River, 

Connecticut. 
Virginia,  vi,  viii,  xiii. 

Walloon's  Cove,  vii. 

West  India  Company,  vii, xiii ;  oath  to,  xxiii ;  its 
estate  confiscated,  xcii.  See  Dutch  West  India 
Company. 

Westminster.    See  Treaty  of. 

William  and  Mary,  accession  of,  lxx ;  reign  of, 
lxxi ;  assembly  established  by,  lxxi ;  second 
assembly  of,  lxxxiv ;  Bradford  printer  to,  i, 
lxxxvi ;  organization  of  province  under,  lxiv. 

Wills,  exxvi. 

Wiltwyck,  xxiv. 

Yonkers,  xxxii. 

York,  Duke  of,  receives  grant  from  Charles  II., 
xxxix  ;  effect  of  his  grant,  xlvi,  xlvii ;  power 
of,  as  lord  proprietor,  li ;  government  of,  liii. 
See  "  Duke's  Laws." 


clii 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE. 


By  Charles  R.  Hildeburn. 


HE  volume  here  reproduced  is  a  facsimile  of  the 
most  precious  work,  historically  and  commercially, 
issued  by  the  press  of  New-York.  Its  qualities  in 
the  former  respect  are  so  fully  set  forth  in  the  Intro- 
duction which  accompanies  it  as  to  leave  no  room 
for  further  reference,  and  the  object  of  this  note  is  merely  to  de- 
scribe it  bibliographically,  and  to  record  a  few  facts  concerning  the 
copies  now  known  to  exist.  Before  doing  so,  I  am  requested  by 
the  Publication  Committee  to  acknowledge  its  indebtedness  to 
Mr.  Abram  C.  Bernheim,  whose  copy  was  found  to  be  in  the  best 
condition  for  reproduction,  and  who  kindly  allowed  it  to  be  taken 
from  his  library  and  used  for  that  purpose.  The  title-page  and 
the  three  separately  printed  acts  were  reproduced  from  the  copy 
at  the  Lenox  Library. 

It  is  the  earliest  edition  of  the  laws  of  New-York,  and  was  proba- 
bly printed  between  December,  1693,  and  March,  1694.  In  dealing 
with  dates  of  this  period  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  English 
year  then  began  on  Lady  Day,  or  the  25th  of  March,  and  that  com- 
mon usage  gave  to  the  months  of  January,  February,  and  the  first 
twenty-four  days  of  March  a  double  yearly  date,  as  1693-94  or  1699— 
1700.  For  the  date  of  December,  1693,  I  rely  on  the  following 
facts:  It  was  the  custom  of  the  printers  of  the  time  to  issue  their 
almanacs  in  October  or  November  of  the  year  preceding  that  for 
which  they  were  intended  to  serve,  and  there  is  no  reason  to 
suppose  that  Bradford  deviated  from  this  rule  in  publishing  Leeds's 
Almanac  for  1694.  That  issue  of  Leeds  contained  the  following 
notices : 

cliii 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE. 


"ADVERTISEMENT. 

"The  Laws  of  the  Province  of  New- York  will  shortly  be  printed, 
whereto  every  one  may  have  recourse  to  know  the  exact  Time  of 
Markets,  Fairs,  Courts,  Excise,  Rates  and  Imposts  upon  Goods, 
&c.  and  therefore  may  omit  them  here." 

"There  is  now  in  the  Press  a  Treatise  entituled,  Truth  advanced 
above  error." 

From  these  two  paragraphs  it  will  be  seen,  first,  that  the  print- 
ing of  the  laws  had  not  been  begun  in  October  or  November, 
1693,  and,  secondly,  that  "Truth  Advanced"  was  then  occupying 
the  press.  The  latter,  a  small  quarto  of  two  hundred  and  twenty- 
six  pages,  was  Bradford's  largest  undertaking  up  to  that  time ;  and 
the  printer's  apology  for  the  typographical  errors  in  it  shows  that 
it  was  not  completed  until  after  the  author  had  sailed  for  England, 
which  event  took  place  in  January  or  February,  1693-94.  It  is 
most  likely  that  Bradford  did  not  begin  work  upon  the  laws  until 
after  he  had  finished  "Truth  Advanced,"  or  in  February,  1693-94. 
The  laws,  as  originally  issued,  contained  twenty-three  sheets  not 
previously  printed,  and  the  time  required  to  accomplish  this  must 
then  have  been  about  three  weeks.  At  least,  Franklin  says  of  the 
last  forty  sheets  of  Sewel's  "History  of  the  Quakers"  (which  con- 
tains a  measure  of  type  to  a  page  about  equal  to  that  of  the  laws 
of  1694)  that  it  was  all  that  he  and  his  partner  Meredith  could  do 
to  set  up  and  work  off  a  sheet  a  day.  This  would  bring  the  com- 
pletion of  the  laws  into  March,  1693-94.  That  it  was  not  later 
appears  clearly  from  the  fact  that  the  table  of  contents  which  is 
prefixed  to  the  laws  does  not  include  the  acts  passed  by  the 
Assembly  on  the  26th  of  March,  1694,  for  the  references  to  the 
pagination  of  the  volume  in  the  index  show  that  it,  together  with 
the  title-page,  which  forms  part  of  the  same  sheet,  was  not  worked 
off  until  after  pages  1  to  84  had  at  least  been  made  up  into  pages. 
The  date  of  publication  of  the  Laws  of  1694  may  therefore  be 
fixed  as  in  March,  1693-94. 

The  volume  is  a  small  folio,  measuring  eleven  and  one  half  by 
seven  and  one  half  inches.  The  body  of  the  book  is  printed  from 
"english"  type,  roman  and  italic,  with  two-line  great  primer 
initials ;  the  captions  of  the  acts  are  in  double  pica  italics,  and  the 
"measure"  of  a  full  page  is  nine  and  one  quarter  by  five  and  one 

cliv 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE. 


eighth  inches.  Various  other  sizes  of  type,  such  as  four-line  pica 
(two  faces),  two-line  pica,  two-line  long  primer,  and  two-line 
great  primer  black,  are  used  throughout  the  volume.  No  lack  of 
"sorts"  or  italics  is  apparent,  but  much  of  the  type  is  worn  and 
broken.  These  facts  are  interesting  as  contributing  to  our  know- 
ledge of  the  extent  and  variety  of  the  furniture  of  Bradford's 
printing-office.  The  presswork  of  the  volume,  like  most  of  Brad- 
ford's, is  bad,  much  of  the  type  being  "filled,"  many  of  the  sheets 
"slurred,"  and  the  color  or  distribution  of  the  ink  very  uneven.  It 
contains  the  acts  of  Assembly  passed  from  April,  i69i,to  September, 
1693,  but  of  these,  three  acts  and  the  "Catalogue  of  Fees"  had 
been  separately  printed  by  Bradford  before  work  on  this  volume 
was  begun.  The  latter,  being  an  ordinance  of  the  Governor  in 
Council,  and  having  been  "established"  during  the  last  sitting 
of  the  Assembly  included  in  the  volume,  readily  found  its  place  at 
the  end;  but  the  three  acts,  having  been  passed  one  at  each  of 
the  sittings  of  September  and  November,  1692,  and  April,  1693, 
should  have  been  reprinted  in  the  body  of  the  volume.  Bradford 
either  thought  this  unnecessary,  as  the  two  tax  laws  expired  by 
limitation  before  or  about  the  time  the  volume  was  issued,  or  in- 
tended to  use  up  the  printed  copies  of  these  acts  on  hand,  and 
accordingly  omitted  them  from  their  proper  places.  In  preparing 
the  table  of  contents  the  titles  of  these  acts  were  placed,  not  in 
their  regular  order,  but  all  together  after  the  references  to  the  acts 
of  September,  1692,  on  page  57,  without  page  references,  showing 
clearly  that  the  acts  belonged  in  the  volume,  but  leaving  a  doubt 
as  to  the  position  in  which  they  could  be  found.  Perhaps  it  was 
intended  that  the  owners  of  copies  should  place  these  acts  as  they 
thought  best,  and  fill  in  references  to  them  with  a  pen ;  or  omit  the 
two  of  a  temporary  character  altogether  in  binding,  as  they  would 
break  into  the  continuity  of  the  text  of  other  acts  if  inserted  in  the 
body  of  the  volume,  and  were  at  that  time  of  no  importance.  In 
binding  the  present  reprint  it  has  been  thought  best  to  insert 
these  acts  together  after  the  laws  passed  in  1693.  The  collation 
of  the  volume  is  as  follows:  Title,  1  leaf;  Table,  pp.  (2);  text,  pp. 
1-57,  57-58,  60-84;  1  Page  blank;  An  Act  for  restraining,  etc.,  Pri- 
vateers, etc.,  passed  10  September,  1692,  pp.  1-3;  1  page  blank;  An 
Act  for  granting  a  rate,  passed  12  November,  1692,  pp.  1-4,  and 
An  Act  for  raising  ^6000,  passed  10  April,  1693,  pp.  (6),  Cata- 
logue of  Fees,  pp.  1-11.    In  all  the  known  copies,  except  the 

civ 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE. 


Lenox,  pages  58  and  59  are  misnumbered  57  and  58,  making  a 
duplicate  page  57  and  omitting  59  entirely.  But  this  error  was 
discovered  before  the  whole  edition  was  "worked  off,"  as  appears 
in  the  Lenox  copy,  in  which  Bradford  corrected  it  and  in  which 
the  pagination  runs  uninterruptedly  from  1  to  84.  The  volume  thus 
described  will  be  hereafter  spoken  of  as  "the  Laws  of  1694  as 
issued." 

The  copies  now  known  to  exist  are : 

1.  The  Lord  Somers  copy  now  in  the  Tower  Collection  of  Amer- 
ican Colonial  Laws.  It  is  the  only  uncut  copy  known,  having  been 
but  slightly  trimmed  on  the  top  edge,  and  was  bound  up  in  a 
volume  with  other  large  pamphlets  by  Lord  Chancellor  Somers, 
from  whose  heirs  it  passed  into  the  hands  of  Henry  Sotheran, 
a  London  bookseller.  The  volume  was  then  torn  apart,  and 
the  "Laws  of  1694"  were  offered  for  sale  at  £60,  for  which  sum  it 
was  bought  by  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania,  and  when 
that  society  was  presented  with  the  Tower  Collection  this  copy 
was  transferred  to  that  collection  in  place  of  the  inferior  one 
described  below  as  No.  4.  It  lacks  two  of  the  three  separately 
printed  acts. 

2.  The  New-York  Society  Library's  copy.  This  copy  has  been  in 
the  possession  of  the  library  for  many  years,  except  for  a  time  when 
it  was  "borrowed"  by  a  member  of  the  New-York  bar.  After  his 
death,  about  forty  years  ago,  it  was  discovered  among  his  effects, 
and  was  seized  by  the  library's  representative.  It  appears  formerly 
to  have  been  bound,  and  is  probably  a  part  of  a  volume  of  folio 
tracts  the  remainder  of  which  were  not  recovered  when  this  was 
seized.  It  contains  the  added  "Sessions  Laws,"  pages  85  to  88, 
but  lacks  the  Table  of  Contents,  Catalogue  of  Fees,  and  the  three 
separately  printed  acts. 

3.  The  Lenox  Library's  copy.  This  copy  was  bought  in  Lon- 
don by  the  late  James  Lenox  for  £2  \os.  It  contains  pages  85 
to  92,  the  first  added  "Sessions  Laws,"  besides  the  three  separately 
printed  acts  and  the  Catalogue  of  Fees.  It  is  bound  in  modern 
half  dark  green  morocco,  edges  trimmed  and  gilt,  and  is  a  fine 
copy  of  "the  Laws  of  1694  as  issued,"  with  the  addition  noted. 

clvi 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE. 


4.  Mr.  Abram  C.  Bernheim's  copy.  This,  lacking  a  title-page, 
was  formerly  part  of  a  volume  of  laws  and  other  folio  tracts  printed 
by  Bradford  between  1694  and  17 10,  which  was  bought  at  a  sale 
at  Bangs's,  in  New- York,  about  ten  years  ago,  by  the  late  Dr. 
George  H.  Moore,  for  $26.  In  1890  Dr.  Moore  sold  the  volume  as 
he  bought  it  for  $1750  to  the  writer,  who,  having  supplied  the 
title-page  in  facsimile,  sold  so  much  of  "the  Laws  of  1694  as 
issued"  as  it  contained  to  the  late  Mr.  Tower  for  $600.  The 
volume  then  passed  by  the  gift  of  Mr.  Tower's  widow,  with  the 
Tower  Collection,  to  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania,  and, 
having  been  replaced  by  the  copy  described  above  (No.  1),  was 
sold  to  Dodd,  Mead  &  Company,  of  New-York,  for  $400.  From 
the  firm  last  mentioned  it  was  purchased  by  Mr.  Bernheim. 

5.  The  copy  of  the  State  of  New-York  in  the  office  of  the 
Secretary  of  State.  Nothing  is  known  of  its  history.  It  is  in 
very  old  full  calf  binding.  One  leaf  (pages  33  and  34)  has  been 
torn  out,  and  the  Catalogue  of  Fees  and  the  three  separately 
printed  acts  are  lacking.  Besides  the  "Laws  of  1694"  the 
volume  contains  most  of  the  added  "Sessions  Laws"  down  to 
August,  1705. 

6.  The  Brinley  copy,  now  the  property  of  the  State  of  New- 
York  and  deposited  in  the  State  Library  at  Albany.  This  volume, 
which,  besides  "the  Laws  of  1694  as  issued,"  contains  the  added 
or  "Sessions  Laws"  to  1710,  nearly  complete,  has  been  traced  to 
Mr.  Moses  Polock,  a  bookseller  in  Philadelphia,  who  sold  it  about 
i860  to  Mr.  George  Brinley,  of  Hartford,  Conn.,  for  $12.50.  At 
the  sale  of  Mr.  Brinley's  library  (Catalogue,  Part  II)  in  1880,  it 
was  bought  for  its  present  owner  for  $1600.  It  lacks  two  of  the 
separately  printed  acts. 

7.  The  Thacher  copy.  This  copy  formerly  belonged  to  May 
Bickley,  Colonial  Attorney- General  of  New- York;  later  to  Peter 
Van  Schaack,  "the  editor  of  the  laws  of  New- York  from  1691  to 
1773  inclusive,  published  by  Hugh  Gaine  in  1774,"  from  whom 
it  descended  to  his  son,  Henry  C.  Van  Schaack.  The  latter 
gave  it  to  his  son-in-law,  the  late  Aaron  J.  Vanderpoole,  in  the 
settlement  of  whose  estate  it  was  sold  by  Bangs  &  Co.,  of  New- 
York,  to  Mr.  John  Boyd  Thacher,  of  Albany,  for  $1450.  It 

clvii 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE. 


contains  "the  Laws  of  1694  as  issued"  and  the  added  "Sessions 
Laws "  to  1 704,  together  with  several  other  folio  pieces  printed 
by  Bradford. 

These  seven  copies  only  are  known  to  exist.  A  copy  once 
in  the  extensive  collection  of  colonial  laws  formed  about  171 5 
by  Nicholas  Trott,  Chief  Justice  of  South  Carolina,  who  died  in 
1 74 1,  cannot  now  be  traced.  From  the  foregoing  it  will  be  seen 
that  they  are  distributed — one  in  Philadelphia,  three  in  New- 
York,  and  three  in  Albany;  that  five  of  them  belong  to  public 
libraries,  and  only  two  are  owned  by  individuals;  that  only  two 
(the  Thacher  and  Lenox  copies)  of  them  are  unquestionably 
complete  copies  of  "the  Laws  of  1694  as  issued,"  and  that  three 
of  the  others  (the  Bernheim,  the  New- York  Society  Library, 
and  the  Secretary  of  State's  copies)  are  actually  imperfect  through 
mutilation. 


clviii 


facsimile 

of  t&e  taw  ano  acts  of  t^e  General  3&3!embl?  for 
t^etr  jBta;e0tte0  ^robmce  of  $et» #orfe. 

PRINTED  BY  WILLIAM  BRADFORD, 
1694. 


1  2 


ANNOUNCEMENT. 


FTER  the  fullest  consideration  of  the  text 
of  the  seven  extant  examples  of  Bradford's 
edition  of  the  New -York  Laws  published  in 
the  year  1694,  the  Committee  on  Printing  has 
concluded  that  it  is  more  desirable  to  adopt  the  colla- 
tion of  a  perfect  specimen  than  that  of  one  in  which 
Bradford  had  manifestly  erred,  either  in  the  pagination, 
or  else  in  the  course  of  binding  the  laws.  The  Commit- 
tee therefore  have  accepted  in  the  main  the  collation  of 
the  Lenox  Library  copy.1  The  differences  observable  in 
these  seven  examples  concern  either  the  pagination  or  the 
precise  situation  of  the  three  separately  printed  acts,  "An 
Act  for  Restraining  and  Punishing  Privateers  and  Py- 
rates,"  "An  Act  for  Granting  to  their  Majesties  the  Rate 
of  One  Penny  per  Pound,"  etc.,  and  "An  Act  for  raising 
six  Thousand  Pound,"  etc.,  which  in  several  instances 
are  intruded  between  other  acts  inconsistently  with  the 
arrangement  of  Bradford's  own  table  of  contents. 

The  Committee  ascertained  that  in  most  of  the  known 
examples  of  the  original  edition  Bradford  had  misnum- 
bered  pages  58  and  59,  improperly  designating  them 
pages  57  and  58,  thus  making  two  pages  numbered  57. 
He  must,  however,  have  discovered  his  mistake,  and  cor- 

'The  collation  of  the  Laws  of  1694  accepted  rates,  pp.  1-3,  verso  blank;  An  Act  for  Granting 

for  this  facsimile  edition  is:  Title,  verso  blank,  to  their  Majesties  the  Rate  of  One  Penny  per 

1  leaf;  A  Table  of  the  Contents  of  the  Laws,  Pound,  etc.,  pp.  1-4;   An  Act  for  raising  six 

I  leaf;  Acts,  pp.  1-84  (sig.  A-X)  ;  An  Act  for  Thousand  Pound,  etc.,  6  unnumbered  pages ;  A 

Restraining  and  Punishing  Privateers  and  Py-  Catalogue  of  Fees,  etc.,  pp.  I— 1 1,  verso  blank. 


clxii 


ANNOUNCEMENT. 


rected  it  before  the  entire  edition  was  struck  off  from 
the  press  ;  for  the  example  in  the  Lenox  Library  is  free 
from  the  error,  and  pages  58  and  59  are  there  properly 
numbered.    The  facsimile  does  not  perpetuate  this  error. 

The  Committee  has  caused  the  three  separately  printed 
acts  to  be  placed  after  page  84,  and  before  "A  Catalogue 
of  Fees."  The  arrangement  is  justified  by  this  original 
in  the  Lenox  Library,  which  pursues  the  same  course. 
While  it  undoubtedly  possesses  the  disadvantage  of 
placing  earlier  laws  after  later  ones,  yet  it  has  the  ad- 
vantage of  avoiding  breaks  in  the  continuity  of  the  text, 
and  of  preserving  a  successive  and  uninterrupted  pagina- 
tion. In  the  making  up  of  the  Laws  of  1694  into  volumes, 
Bradford,  for  the  sake  of  economy,  used  the  sheets  of 
the  three  separate  acts  which  he  had  before  printed  and 
then  had  on  hand ;  but  in  arranging  his  "  Table  of  the 
Contents  of  the  Laws,"  he  placed  those  three  acts  neither 
chronologically,  nor  with  due  regard  to  his  pagination  of 
the  other  laws.  This  course  was  purely  arbitrary  on  his 
part,  and  as  the  members  of  the  Assembly  had  their 
sheets  of  the  laws  bound  up  at  pleasure,  it  is  not  deemed 
necessary  that  this  facsimile  should  adopt  a  plan  of  col- 
lation radically  different  from  the  splendid  example  in  the 
Lenox  Library. 

Thus  the  facsimile  presented  in  this  volume  contains 
all  the  laws  mentioned  in  Bradford's  table  of  contents ; 
and  the  situation  of  the  laws  follows  the  arrangement  of 
such  table  of  contents,  with  the  exception  of  the  three 
separately  printed  acts,  which,  as  in  the  Lenox  example 
of  the  original,  are  placed  before  the  "Catalogue  of  Fees." 


clxiii 


THE 

LAWS  &  ACTS 

o  s  The 

(general  SlffemWp 

FOR 

Their  Majefties  Province 

NEW-YORK, 


As  they  were  Enafted  in  divers  Seffions,  the  firft  of 
which  began  AfriL,  the  pth,  Annoy,  Domini, 

l  6$>i. 


<jfio     JTi     c&  tj|.j 
■Z-  & 


At  New-Tori, 
Printed  a«d  Sold  by  Witthm  Bradford,  Primer  to  their  Majeaies,  King 

William  &  Cueen  Mary,  1^94- 


A  Table  of  the  Contents  of  the  Laws.. 

A*  Act  for  Quieting '  and  fettling  the  Diforders  that  have  lately 
hippened  within  this  Province,  and  for  the  eftabhfbing  and  fecuring 
their  Mojejlies  prtfcnt  Government  againft  the  like  Diforders  far  the 
future,  page  I, 

An  Aa  for  ejlabltjbing  Court t  of  judicature,  2,  64. 

An  Act  for  the  fettling,  quieting  and  confirming  unto  the  Cities,  Tonns, 
Mannors  and  Free-holder^  within  this  Province,  their  fever al  Grants, 
Patents  and  Rights  reflectively,  6. 

An  Act  for  the  enabling  each  refpective  Town  within  this  Province  to 
regulate  their  Fences  and  High-ways,  and  make  prudenttal  Orders  for  their 
Peace  and  orderly  Improvements,  7. 

An  Ail  for  defraying  the  publick  &  nece  fj ary  Charges  throughout  thit  Province, 
and  for  maintaining  the  Poor,  and  preventing  V tgabonds,  ,  ,8  • 

An  Act  for  fettling  the  Militia,  i©. 

An  Act  declaring  what  are  the  Rights  and  Priviledget  of  their  Mojejlies 
Subjects  inhabiting  within  this  Province  of  New-  Y  ork,  1 5. 

An  Act  for  the  Allowance  toihe  Reprefentativos,  19. 

An  Act  to  enable  the  City  and  County  of  Albany  to  defray  their  neceffary 
Charge,  .20. 

An  Act  for  eflablifbing  a  Revenue  u  pon  their  Maje fries  for  defraying  the 
publick  and  nefejfaty  Charges  of  the  Government,  21,  58,  80,  84. 

An  Act  to  enable  hu  Excellency  to  defray  his  extraordinary  Expence,  and  to 
indemnife  the  Collector  for  the  Receipt  of  fevtral  Sums  of  Money  on 
pretence  of  Cufloms,  26. 

An  Act  for  ra'frng  two  Thoufand  Pounds,  &c,  27. 

An  Act  to  exfe  People  that  are  fcrupulotu  in  Swearing,  30. 

An  A&for  P ar dvning  fach  m  have  been  active  in  the  late  Diforders,      $  1. 

An  Act  for  the  regulating  Damage  1  don*  in  the  time  of  t  Jet  late  Diforders,  and 
for  Uniting  the  Minds  of  their  Majeftte*  Subjects  t*ithi»  thit  Province,  and 
(or  calling  Home  ftch  $f  their  Majefties  Subjects  that  have  lately  ab/ented 
therfelvzs  from  their  Habitations  and  ufual places  of  a  bode,  3  4 


An  Act  tor  divide  this  Province  and  Dependencies  into  Shires  and  C**ntiest 

An  Act  for  tht  raffing  and  paying  i  50  Men  for  tht  Defence  of  Albany,  40 

An  Act  for  the  Regulating  the  Buildingsx  Streets,  Lanes,  Wharfs,  Docks 
And  Myes  of  tht  City  of  New-York,  ^ 

An  Act  for  the  raifing  200  men  for  the  Defence  of  Albany,  ^5 

An  Act  for  the  defiroying  of  Wolves,  ja# 

An  Act  for  the  raifing  220  Men  with  their  OJxcers,  for  the  fecurtty  of  the 
Fronteers  of  this  Province,  ^  j 

An  Act  for  the  raifing  and  paying  80  Men  in  Ulfter  and  Dutches  County,  ^7 

An  Act  for  retraining  and  punijbing  Privateers  and  Py  rates. 

An  Act  for  grantingtheir  Maj«fiies  the  Rate  of  one  Penny  per  Pound  upon  all 
the  Real  and  Perfonal  p. fates  within  the  Province  of  New -York. 

An  Act  for  raifing  fx  Thou/ and Pound  for  tht  payment  of  joo  Volunteer /, 
for  the  Reinforcement  of  Albany,  &c. 

•  An,  Act  for  fettling  fairs  and Markets  in  each  r  effective,  County  throughout 
the  Province,  63. 

An  Act  for  the  Supervifing  Inteflates  P fates,  and  regulating  the  Probata  of 
WiDr,  and  granting  Letters  of  Adminifiration,  72 

An  Act  for  the  Encouraging  a  PoJl-OJ?ice>  74. 

An  Act  for  the fatisfying  and  paying  the  Debts  of  the  Government,         7  j 

An  Act  for  calling  Long  Ifland,  the  IJland  of  Naflaw,  79 

An  Act  for  e ft  ai  lifting  certain  RaHs  and  Duties  upo*  fuch  Goods,  Waret  and 
Merchandize  as  (ball  bt  brought  unto  their  Mytfiks  Btant  in  the  Weigh* 
Houfeat  New-York,  80 

An  Act  for  fettling  a  Minifry  and  raifing  a  Maintenance  for  them,       8 1  • 

An  Act  continuing  tht  Revenue  unto  tbeir  Mayflies  foe  Years  longer  than 
the  former  Act,  84 

A  Calalogut  of  tees  eflablifbtd  by  the  G$ver»9ur  and  Council  at  the  humble 
}  requejl  oj  the  A(ftmHy> 


CO 


An  A&  for  the  quieting  and  fettling  the  DiforJers 
that  have  lately  happened  within  this  Province , 
and  for  the  ejlablishingand  fecuring  their  Majefties 
prefent  Government  againjl  the  Hie  J)iforders  for 
the  future. 

FOrafmuch  as  the  Good  and  Quiet,  Eafe,  Profit,  Benefit  and!  Ad- 
vantage-of  the  Inhabitants  within  this  Provincedoth  chiefly  confift 
in,  and  altogether  rely  and  depend  upon  their  hearing  true-Faith 
and  Allegiance  unto  their  Majefties  Crown  of  EngU/Uy  which  is,  andean 
only  be  the  fupport  and  Defence  of  this  Province.  And  whereas  the 
latehafty  and  inconiiderate  Violation  of  the  fame,  by  the- letting  up  a 
Power  over  Their  Majefties  Subje&s,  without  Authority  from  the  Crowo 
of  £ngUnd,  hath  vitiated  anddebauched  the  Minds  of  many  People,  dhc, 
and  hath  alio  brought  great  W2fte,  Trouble  and  Deftruction  tipoufhe 
good  People  of  this  Province,  their  Majefties  Loyal  Subjects.  For  the  Pre- 
vention whereof,  in  time  toccome,  Be  it  therefore  Enacted  and  Ordained 
by  the  Governour  and  Council,  and  Reprefentatives  met  in  General  At 
fembly,  And  it  is  hereby  Publi/hed,  Declared,  Enacted  and  Ordained, 
by  the  Authority  of  the  fame,  That  there  can  be  no  Power  and  Authority 
held  and  exerciled  over  their  Ma  jefties  Subjects  in  this  their  Province  and 
Dominion ,but  what  muft  be  derived  from  their  Majefties,  their  Heirs  and 
SucceiTors.  And  we  do  hereby  Recognize  and  Acknowledge,  That 
Their  Majefties,  IViliiamznd  Mary,  are,  and  as  of  Right  they  ought  to 
be  by  the  Laws  of  the  Realm  of  England,  our  Leige  Lord  and  Lady, 
KING  and  QUEEN  of  England,  France  and  he/ami,  and  the  Domi- 
nions thereunto  belonging,  &c.  That  thereby  their  Princely  Perlbns 
are  only  inverted  with  the  Right  to  Rule  this  their  Dominions  and 
Province,  and  that  none  oug^ht  or  can  have  Power,  upon  any  Pretence 
whatfoever,  to  ufe  or  cxercife  any  Power  over  Their  Subjects  in  thit 
Province,  but  by  their  Immediate  Authority  under  Their  Broad  Seal  of 
Their  Realm  of  England,  as  now  eftablifhed. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefeid,  That  what- 
foever  Perfon  or  Per  (on  s  fhali  by  any  manner  of  way,  or  upon  any 
pretence  whatfoever,  endeavour  by  Force  of  Arms  or  otherways,  to> 
difturb  the  Peace,  Good  2nd  Qmet  of  this  Their  Majefties  Government, 
as  it  is  now  eftablifhed,  fhall  be  deemed  and  cfteemed  as  Rebels  and 
Traytors  unto  Their  Majcftiee,  and  incur  the  Pains,  Penalties  and  For- 
feitures, as  the  Laws  of  England  have,  for  fuch  Offences,  made  and 
provided. 


t  21 


An  AS  for  EJUblisbing  Courts  of  judicature  for  the 
Eafe  and 'Benefit  oj '  eachreftec~ivire  City,  Town  and 
Comty  within  thk  Province. 

WHcreas  the  orderly  Regulation,  and  the  eftabliinmcnc  of  Courts 
of  Juftice  throughout  this  Province,  as  well  in  the  refpeft  of 
Time  as  Place,  doth  tend  very  much  to  the  Honour  and  Dignity  of  the 
Crown,  as  well  as  to  the  Eafe  and  Benefit  of  the  Subject,  Be  k  Enacted 
by  the  Governour  &  Council,  and  Reprefentatives  convened  in  General 
AfemWy,  and  it  is  hereby  Enacted  and  Ordained  by  the  Authority  of  the 
feme,  That  every  Juftice  of  the  Peace  thatrefides  within  any  Town  or 
County  within  tnis  Province,  are  hereby  fully  impowered  and  autho- 
rized to  have  Cognizance  of  all  Caufes,  Cafes  of  Debts  and  Trefpals 
to  the  value  of  Forty  Shillings,  or  under;  which  Caufes  and  Cafes  fhall 
be  heard,  tryed  and  finally  determined  without  a  Jury*  by  every  Juftice 
of  the  Peace  that  refides  within  any  Town  or  County  within  this 
Province,  he  taking  to  his  Affiftance,"  at  the  time  of  his  hearing  and 
determining fuch  Caufe  or  Cafes  of  Debt  and  Trefpafs  to  the  value  of 
Forty  Shillings  and  under,  one  of  the  Free  holders  of  the  Town  and 
place  where  the  caufe  of  Action  doth  arife.   The  Procefs  of  warning, 
fihall  be  by  a  fummons  under  the  Hand  of  the  Juftice,  directed  to  the  Con- 
ftableof  the  Town  or  Precinct,  or  any  deputed  by  him,   where  the 
Party  complained  againft  doth  live.   Which  Summons  being  Perfonally 
ferved,  or  left  at  the  Defendants  Houle  two  days  betore  the  Day  of 
Hearing  of  the  Plaint,  (hall  be  fufficient  Authority  to  and  for  the  faki 
Juftice,  aflifted  with  one  of  the  Free-holders,  as  aforefaid,  to  proceed 
on  fuefi  Caufe  and  Caufes,  and  determine  the  fame  in  the  Defendants 
abfence  i  and  to  grant  Execution  thereon,  againft  the  Defendants  Perfon, 
or  for  want  thereof  his  Eftate,  which  the  Conftable  of  the  Town  or  Pre- 
cincts, or  his  Deputy,  mall  and  may  ferve. 

Always  provided,  and  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  afore- 
faid, That  if  the  PlantifF  or  Defendant  fhall  defire  a  Jury,  it  mail  be 
allowed,  but  at  the  proper  Coft  and  Charges  of  the  Perfon  defiring  the 
fame. 

And  for  the  Increafe  of  Virtue  and  Difcouraging  of  Evil-doers 
throughout  this  Province,  Beit  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  afore- 
faid, That  there  mall  be  held  and  kept  in  every  refpe&ive  City  and 
County  within  this  Province  (at  the  Times  and  Places  hereafter  named 
and  exprefTed)  a  Court  of  Seflions  of  the  Peace,  that  is  to  fay, 

For  the  City  and  County  of  New-Tork^  at  the  City  Hall  of  the  laid 
Gity  four  times  every  Year,  viz..  The  firft  Tuefclay  in  Msy,  the  firft 
Tuefday  in  Augaft,  the  firft  Tuefday  in  November and  the  firft  Tuefday 
in  February.. 


For  the  City  and  County  of  Albany,  at  the  City  Hal!  of  theTaid  City, 
the  firft  Tuefday  in  JW,  the  flrft  Tuefday  in  Ottokr,  and  the  firft 
Tacfday  in  February* 

For  Wejlchejter  at  tVeJtcbejler  the  firft  Tuefday  in  June,  and  the  firft 
Tuefday  in  December. 

For  Vtfer,  at  Kjn^on  "die  firft  Tuefday  in  September,  and  the  firft 
Tuefday  in  M«r;£. 

For  the  County  of  Richmond,  at  the  Court-Houle,  the  firft  Tuefday 
in  September,  and  the  firft  Tuefday  in  March. 

For  County  at  Flatbujb  (alias  Midwoai)  the  fecond  Tuefday  in 
ilfiy,  and  the  lecond  Tacfday  in  November. 

For  gteoM  County,  at  f  ornate*,  the  third  Tuefday  in  Afy,  and  the 
third  Tuefday  in  September. 

For  Suffolk  County,  zx.Southoldy  the  laft  Tuefday  in  September. 

An<UhelaftTuelrJayin  March  at  Southampton.  ^Orange  County  to  be 
annixedto  the  County  of  New-Tork,  and  Dutches  County  to  the  County  of 
Vtjler, ' 

Which  Seflions  of  the  Peace  fhall  only  hold  and  continue  for  the  {pace 
and  time  of  two  Day  es,  and  no  longer. 

And  for  the  more  regular  and  beneficial  Diftribution  of  Juftiee  to  the 
Inhabitants.of  each  refpeftive  Ciry  and  County  within  this  Province,  Be 
it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforelaid,  That  there  be  fcept  and 
held  a  Court  of  Common  Pleas  in  each  refpe£tive  City  and  County 
within  this  Province,  at  the  Times  and  Places  hereafter  named  and 
exprefled :  That  is  to  lay,  At  fuch  places  in  each  refpe&ive  County  as 
thefeid  Court  of  Seflions  are  to  be  kept;  and  to  begin  the  next  day 
after  the  Seflions  terminates,  and  only  to  hold  and  continue  for  the  (pace 
and  time  of  two  days,  and  no  longer ;  And  that  there  be  one  Judge, 
with  three  Juftices ,  in  each  County,  Appointed  and  Commiflion- 
ated  to  hold  the  fame  Court  of  Pleas ;  Three  whereot  to  be  a  Quo* 
rum.  And  that  the  leveral  and  refpettive  Courts,  hereby  eftabllftied, 
£halV  have  Jurifdi&ion  to  Hear,  Try,  and  finally  to  Determine  all 
Actions  or  caufe  of  Actions,  and  all  Matters,  and  Things,  and  Caufes 
Tryabkat  the  Common  Law,  of  what  Nature  or  Kind  ioever.* 

Provided  alwayes,  and  it  is  hereby  ena&ed,  That  there  fhall  not  be 
any  Appeal)  or  Removal  by Habeas  Corpus,  of  any  Perfbn,  or  of  any  A&ion 
or  Suit,  or  of  any  Judgment  or  Execution,  that  fhall  be  determined  in 
this  Gourt  to  the  value  of  Twenty  Pounds  or  under,  any  thing  contain- 
ed herein  to  the  contrary  in  any  ways  notwithftanding. 

Provided  alwayes,  and  it  is  hereby  Ena&ed,  That  the  Courts  of 
Mayor  and  Aldermen  of  the  refpe&ive  Cities  of  New  Tork  and  Albany, 
fhall  have  in  each  of  their  refpccYive  Cities  the  Power  and  Authority  to 
Hear,  Try,  and,  finally  to  Determine  all  fuch  A&ionsand  Suits,  as  is 
commonly  cognizable  before  them;  from  which  final  Determination, 
there  fhail  not  be  any  Appeal  or  Removal  by  Habeas  Corptts^  of  anr 
Perlbn,  or  of  any  A£fron  or  Suit,  or  of  any  Judgment  or  Execution,  to 


the  value  of  Twenty  Pounds,  or  under,  any  thing  contained  herein  to 
the  contrary  in  any  waysnotwithftanding. 

To  which  refpeftive  Court  of  Common  Picas  there  fhall  belong,  and 
be  appointed  and  commiflionated  for  that  purpofe,  one  Clark  of  the 
Court,  to  draw,  enter  and  keep  the  Records ,  Declarations ,  Pleas , 
and  Judgments,  there  to  be  had  and  matte.  And  one  Marfhal  or  Cryer 
of  the  Court,  to  call  the  Jurors ,  and  proclaim  the  Commands  and 
Orders  of  the  Court. 

And  for  the  more  regular  Proceedings  in  the  faid  Court,  all  Precedes 
and  Writs,  of  what  Nature  foever,  for  the  Command  of  Perfons  to 
appear,  and  to  execute  the  Judgments  and  Executions  of  the  refpec~tive 
Courts  aforefaid,  fhall  be  directed  to  the  refpe&ive  Sheriffs  of  each  city 
and  County  within  this  Province,  and  executed  by  them,  their  Under- 
Sherifls,  or  Deputy  or  Deputies.  And  all  ProcefTes  and  Writs  for 
A&ions  betwixt  Party  and  Party  in  the  laid  Court,  {hall  iffue  out  of  the 
Office  of  the  Clark  of  the  Court  in  each  City  and  County  refpe&ively, 
figned  Per  Curiam. 

And  that  Their  Majefties  Subjects  inhabiting  within  this  Province, 
may  have  all  the  good,  proper  and  juft  waves  and  means  for  the  fecuring 
and  recovering  their  juft  Rights  and  Demands  within  the  fame,  Be  it 
further  Enacted,  and  it  is  hereby  Enafted  and  Ordained,  by  Authority 
aforefaid,  That  there  fhall  be  held  and  kept  a  Supream  Court' of 
Judicature,  which  fhall  be  duely  and  coriftantly  kept  at  the  City  of 
NewJTork,   and  not  elfe- where,  at  the  leveral  and  refpettive  Times 
hereafter  mentioned.    And  that  there  be  five  Juftices  at  leaft  appointed 
and  eommuTLonated  to  hold  the  fame  Court,  Two  whereof,  together  with 
one  chief  Juftice,  to  be  a  Quorum.    Which  Supream  Courtis  hereby 
fully  Impowered  and  Authorized  to  have  Cognizance  of  all  Pleas, 
Civil,  Criminal  and  Mixt,  as  fully  and  amply  to  all  intents  and  purpofes 
whatfoever,  as  the  Courts  of  Kjngs  Bench,  Common  Pitas  and  Exchequer, 
within  Their  Majefties  Kingdom  of  England,  have,  or  ought  to  have. 
In  and  to  which  Supream  Court  all  and  every  Perfon  and  Perfons  what- 
foever, fhall  or  may,  if  they  fhall  fo  fee  meet,  commence  or  remove  any 
A&ionor  Suit,  the  Debt  or  Damage  laid  infuch  A&ion  or  Suit  being 
upwards  of  Twenty  Pounds,  and  not  otherwife;  or  fhall  or  may  by 
Warrant,  Writ  of  Error,  or  Certi$rari ,  remove  out  of  any  of  the 
re fpe&ive  Courts  of  Mayor  and  Aldermen,  ScHons  and  Common  Pleas, 
any  Judgment,  Information  or  Indifitment  there  had  or  depending ; 
and  may  correct  Errors  in  Judgment,  or  Reverfe  the  fame,  if  there  be 
juftcaufe.    Provided  always,  That  the  Judgment  removed  fhall  be  up- 
wards of  the  value  of  Twenty  Pounds. 

Always  provided,  and  be  further  Ena&ed  by  the  Authority  aforefaid, 
That  this  Supream  Court  fhall  be  duely  and  conftantly  kept  once  every 
fix  Moneths,  and  no  oftner ;  That  is  to  fay,  On  the  firft  TuefiJay  of 
Ofiober,  and  on  tho  firft  Tuefday  of  ^/'/annually,  and  every  Year',  at 
the  City  Rail  of  the  faid  City  of  Nem-Tork  ;  provided  they  fhall  not  fit 
longer  than  eight  dayes. 


C  5  J 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  it  f?iall  not 
be  lawful  for  any  Perfon  or  Perfons  whatfoevex,  appointed,  or  elected* 
or  commiifionated  tt,  be  a  Juftice  or  Judge  of  the  aforefaid  Courts,  to 
execute  or  officiate  his  or  their  faid  place  or  Office  until  fuch  Time  he 
or  they  flull  refpe&ively  take  the  Oathes  appointed  by  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment, to  be  taken  in  ftead  of  the  Oathes  of  Allegiance  and  Supremacy, 
and  lublcribe  theTeft  in  open  Court. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  all  and 
every  of  the  Juft ices  or  Judges  of  the  feveral  Courts  before-mentioned, 
be,  and  are  hereby  fufficiently  impowered  to  make,  order  and  eftablifh  all 
fuch  Rules  and  Orders,  for  the  more  orderly  practifing  and  proceeding 
in  their  (aid  Courts,  as  fully  and  amply  to  all  intents  and  purpofes 
whatfoever,  as  all  or  any  of  the  (aid  Judges  of  the  (everal  Courts  of 
the  Kings  Beach,  Common  Pleas  ind  Exchequer  in  England  legally  do. 

Provided  alwayes,  and  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  afore- 
faid, That  no  Perfons  Right  or  Property  (hall  be  by  any  of  the  afore- 
faid Courts  determined,  except  where  matters  of  Fact  are  either 
Acknowledged,  or  paffeth  by  the  -Defendants  Fault  for  want  of  Plea 
or  Anfwer,  Unlets  the  Fact  be  found  by  the  Verdict  of  Twetve  Men 
of  the  Neighbourhood,  as  it  ought  of  /light  to  be  done  by  the  Law. 

Be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  there  fhall 
be  a  Court  of  Chancery  within  this  Province ,  which  faid  Court  fliall 
have  Power  to  Hear  and  Determine  all  Matters  or  Equity,  and 
fhall  be  c (teemed  and  accounted,  The  High  Court  of  Chancery  of  this 
Province. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  the  Go- 
vernour  and  Council  be  the  laid  High  Court  of  Chanc  ry,  and  hold  and 
fceep  the  {aid  Court;  and  that  the  Governour  mav  depute,  nominate 
and  appoint,  in  his  ftead,  a  Chancellor,  and  be  atfiitcd  with  fuch  other 
Perfons  of  the  Council  as  (hall  by  him  be  thought  fit  and  convenient, 
together  with  all  necelfary  Officers,  Clerks,  and  Regifters,  as  to  the 
faid  High  Court  of  Chancery  are  needful!. 

Provided  alwayes,  and  it  is  hereby  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority 
aforefaid,  That  any  free-holder,  Planter,  Inhaliant  or  Sojourner 
tvithin  this  Province,  may  have  Liberty,  if  he  or  they  fee  meet,  to 
make  his  or  their  Appeal  or  Appeals,  from  any  Judgment  obtained 
a^ainfr  him  or  them,  in  cafe  of  Error,  in  the  Several  ourts  aforefaid, 
in  fuch  manner  and  form  as  is  hereafter  exprefTcd,  That  is  to  f?y,  From 
the  Court  of  Md>or  and  Alderman,  and  Courts  of  Common  Pleas,  To 
the  Suprcam  Court,  for  any  Judgment  above  the  value  of  Twenty 
Pounds;  And  from  the  Supream Court  at  New-7orky  to  the  Governour 
and  Council ,  for  any  Judgment  above  the  value  of  One  Hundred 

B  Pounds 


[  6  1 

Pounds ;  And  from  the  Governour  and  Council  To  their  Majefties 
Council ,  for  any  Decree  or  Judgment  above  the  Value  of  Three 
Hundred  Pounds,  as  in  Their  Majefties  Letters  Patents  to  his  Excellency 
doth  and  may  more  fully  appear.  Alwayes  provided  t  That  the  Party 
or  Parties  fo  Appealing,  fhall  foft  pay  all  Coft  of  fuui  Judgment  or 
Decree  from  which  the  Appeal  arheth,  and  enter  into  Recognizeancc, 
with  two  ftfficient  Sureties,  for  double  the  value  of  the  Debt,  Matter 
or  Thing  recovered  or  obtained  by  Judgment  or  Decree  again  ft  him  or 
them,  to  the  faid  Court  from  which  they  Appeal,  That  they  will  profe- 
tute  the  /aid  Appeal  or  Af  teals  with  Efe3,  and  tnaH  Return  thereof  mthin 
Twelve  Months  after  the /aid  Appeal  or  A f peals  here  nude.  And  if  Default 
happen  thereon,  then  Execution  to  ilTue  out  upon  the  Judgment,  againft 
the  Party,  or  their  Sureties,  in  courfe,  without  any  Scire  facias. 
Provided  alwayes,  That  the  eftablilhing  of  thefe  Courts  fhall  not  be 
or  remain  longer  in  force  than  for  the  time  and  fpace  of  two  Years, 
and  until  the  end  of  the  fitting  of  the  next  Aflembly  after  the  expiration 
of  the  laid  two  Years. 


Ah  AB  for  the  Settling  Quieting  and  Confirming 
unto  the  Cities,  'lowns,  Mannours  and  Free- 
holders within  this  Province,  their  feveral Grants, 
^Patents  and  Rights  reffeiiively. 

FOrafinuch  as  the  many  Changes,  Alterations  and  Difturbances 
that  have  been  lately  given  unto  their  Majefties  Subjects  inhabit- 
ing within  this  their  Province,  &c.  hath  and  doth  very  much  difcourage 
the  fettling,  improving  and  the  growth  and  ftrength  thereof ;  and  that 
it  is  now  abfolutely  necefTary  for  the  quieting  and  fatisfying  their 
Majefties  good  Subjects  within  the  Tame,  that  the  Rights  and  Priviledgcs 
formerly  held  by  and  granted  to  the  refpective  Cities,  Towns,  Mannors 
and  Free-holders  within  this  Province,  &c.  fhould  be  now  ratified  and 
confirmed, 

fie  it  therefore  Enacted  by  the  Governour,  Council,  and  Reprefenta. 
tives  convened  in  General  Affembly ,  And  it  is  hereby  Enacted  and 
Declared  by  the  Authority  of  the  fame,  That  all  the  Charters,  Patents, 
Grants  made,  given  and  granted,  and  well  and  truly  executed  under 
the  Seal  of  this  Province,  conftituted  and  authorized  by  their  late  and 
prefent  Majefties,  the  Kings  of  England,  and  Regiftered  in  the  Secretary's 
Office,  unto  the  feveral  and  refpecHve  Corporations  or  Bodies  Politick 
of  the  Cities,  Towns  and  Mannors,  and  alfo  to  the  feveral  and  re- 
fpective Free-holders  within  this  Province,  are  and  fhall  forever  be 
deemed,  efteemed  and  reputed  good  and  effectual  Charters,  Patents 
and  Grants  authentick  in  the  Law,  againft  their  Majefties,  their  Heirs, 


and  Succeflbrs  forever,  notwithftandtng  of  the  want  of  :Fo*m$  in  the 
Law,  orthcNon-feizanceof  any  Right,  Priviledge,  or  Cuftom,  which 
oogbt  to  have  been  done  heretofore  by  the  Confutations  and  Directions 
contained  in  the  refpe&ive  Charters,  Patents  and  Grants aforefaii}. 

And  be  it  further  Ena&ed  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  all  the 
Charters  Patents  and  Grants,  made,  given  and  granted,  as  aforefaid, 
unto  all  and  every  the  feveral  and  refpe&ive  Corporations  or  Bodies 
Politick  of  the  Cities,  Towns  and  Manaors,  and  their  Succeflbrs,  and 
alfo  unto  all  and  every  the  refpe&ire  Free-holders,  their  Heirs  &  Afligns 
forever  within  this  Province,  are  to  all  intents  and  purpofes  whatsoever 
hereby  Ratified  and  Confirmed,  To  Have,  Hold,  Exercife,  Occupy, 
Poflels  and  Enjoy  all  their,  and  every  of  their  former  Rights,  Cuftorns, 
prerogatives,  Priviledges ,  Preheminencies ,   Pra&ifes  ,  Immunities, 
Liberties,  Franchifcs,  Royalties  and  Ufages  whatfoever,  in  as  full  and 
ample  manner,  as  if  none  of  thele  Changes,  Alterations,  Difturbances, 
want  of  other  Forms  in  the  Law,  or  the  Non-feizance  of  any  Rights, 
Priviledges  or  Cuftorns  of  any  of  the  Corporations  aforelaid,  had  never 
happened,  or  been  negle&ed,  any  thing  herein  contained,  or  in  any  other 
law  to  the  contrary  in  any  wife  notwithftanding.   Provided,  That 
nothing  herein  contained  {hall  be  conftrued  or  taken  to  bar  any  perfon 
or  perlons  of  his  or  their  former  and  juft  Right,  or  pretences  to  any 
Hoafe,  Tractor  parcel  of  Land  within  this  Province.   Al waves  pro- 
vided, That  he  or  they  that  have  any  fuch  juft  Right  or  Pretence,  do 
make  his  or  their  Claim  within  the  fpace  of  five  Years  next  after  the 
date  hereof.    And  alio  provided,  That  nothing  herein  contained  fhall 
be  intended  or  conftrued  to  the  prejudice  or  hindrance  of  the  Title  or 
Claim  of  any  Perlba  under  Age,  Itme  Covert ,  Non  Compos  Mentis, 
Imprifonment,  or  beyond  the  Sea. 


An  A&  for  the  enabling  each  rtfpeBke  1  own  xv': thin 
tb'j  Province  to  Regulate  thtv  Fences  and  High- 
ways,  and  make  prudential  Orders  for  their  Teace 
and  orderly  Improvements^ 

WHereas  the  refpeftive  Towns  within  this  Province,  &c  are  Co 
circumftanced  as 'to  have  different  and  diftindl:  waves  in  their. 
Improvements  of  Tillage  and  Pafturage,  and  that  it  is  altogether 
neceiThry  that  they  may  be  qualified  and  made  capable  in  the  Law  to 
makefi»cli  prudential  Rules  and  Orders  for  the  better  Improvement  of 
their  refpecYive  Towns,  and  the  Rcgaiating  their  Fences  and  High- 
wayes  accordingly.  Re  it  therefore  Enaftcd  by  the  Governour  and 
Council,  and  the  /leprefenratives  met  in  General  ACfembly,  and  by  the 

Authority 


C  8  3 

Authority  of  thejame,  That  the  FreViolders  of  every  refpe&ive  Town* 
with  this  Province  are  hereby  Impowered  and  Authorized  to  meet 
andaflemble  themfelves  together  at  fuch  times  and  places  as  axe  appointed 
and  expreffed  in  their  refpe&ive  Grants  and  Patents,  and  when  fb 
alTemWed  to  make,  eftablifh,  oonftitute  and  ordain,  from  time  to  time, 
fuch  prudential  Orders  and  Rules,  for  tne  better  improving  of  their 
refpecrive  Lands  in  Tillage,  Pafturage,  or  in  any  other  reafonable  way, 
as  (hall  by  the  Majority  of  the  Free-holders,  fo  affembled  or  convened  as 
aforefaid,  be  thought  good  and  convenient. 

And  alfb,  when  the  Freeholders  of  each  refpe&ive  Town  within  this 
Province,  &e>  are  aflBmbled ,  as  aforefaid,  they  are  hereby  further 
authorized  and  impowered  to  make  chotte,  and  nominate  in  each 
of  their  refpe&ive  Towns  ,  annually,  and  once  every  Year,  Three 
Perfbns  to  be  Surveyors  and  Orderers  of  the  Work  for  the  laying  out 
and  the  Amendment  of  the  High-wayes  and  Fences  within  the  Bounds 
and  Limits  of  their  refpe&ive  Towns  wichin  this  Province.  Which 
Perfbns,  fo  Nominated  and  chofen ,  fball  take  upon  them  the  faid 
Office,  and  are  hereby  impowered  to  lay  out,  fet  forth,  regulate  and 
amend  all  fuch  Hieh-wayes  and  Fences  as  fhallbe  eftablifhed,  infucli 
manner,  form  and  way  as  fliall  be  agreed  upon  and  directed  by  the 
Majority  of  the  Free-holders  of  each  refpe&ive  Towns,  as  aforefaid.. 
Alwayes  provided,  That  fuch  Orders  as  are  made,  constituted  and 
ordained,  Ihall  be  fcept  and  Regiftered  in  the  Town's  Books  for  that 
purpofe,  and  contented  to  and  approved  by  the  next  Court  of  Stflions 
of  tne  Peace  in  the  Counties  where  the  refpeftive  Towns  are,  other- 
wife  to  be  of  no  Force  nor  Virtue  whatfoever. 


Jin  A3  for  Defraying  of  the  Tublict^  and  Necefary 
Charge  throughout  this  Province,  and  fortnamtain* 
ing  the  Poor,  and  preventing  Vagabonds* 

F Orafmuch  as  it  is  neceflary  that  each  refpetHve  County  within  this 
Province  fhould  have  Power  to  eftablifh  a  Rate,  for  the  Defray irg 
of  their  refpeftive  andpublick  Charge,  Be  it  therefore  Enacted  by  the 
Governour  and  Council ,  and  Reprefentatives  convened  in  General 
AfTembly,  and  by  the  Authority  of  the  fame,  That  there  be  elected 
and  chofen  annually,  and  once  every  Year,  in  each  refpe&ive  Town 
within  this  Province,  Two  Free-holders,  who  are  hereby  impowered 
to  afTefs  and  eftablifh  a  certain  Rate  upon  each  of  the  Free-holders  and 
Inhabitants  within  their.  Refpe&ive Towns ;  which  AfTefment  or  certain 
Rate,ftiall  upon  a  certain  day,  as  the  Inhabitants  of  the  refpeftive  Towns 
fhill  appoint,  be  delivered  to  a  certain  Free-holder,  which  fhall  be  like- 
wife  chofen  in  each  refpeftive  Town  aforefaid,  to  fupsrvife  and  examine 
the  publick  and  neceflary  Charge  of  each  refpecUve  County.  Which 

Perfbns 


Perfons,  fo  duely  chofeo,  ffaall  ele&  and  confiitute  a  oertain  Treafurer 
for  each  reijxftivc  County,  which  Trcafurcr  IhalJ  make  fuch  payment* 
for  the  defraying  of  all  the  publick  and  neceflary  Charges  of  eadi 
refpeitive  County,  as  (haU  be  appointed  and  ordered  by  the  Perlbns  ft 
chofen  for  the  ftperviflng  the  publick  Charges  of  each  refpeftive  County. 

And  be  it  further  provided  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  any  fuch 
AfTefmenr  or  Rate,  made,  ordained  or  appointed,  by  the  Perfons  fo 
chofen,  fhall  be  coilefted  and  gathered  by  the  Conftable,' or  any  other 
Per  fon  chofen  or  appointed  thereunto ;  as  alfo,  if  any  perfba  or  perfons 
fhall  refufe  to  pay  the.  (aid  Aifefment  or  Rate,  that  it  may  be  lawful  for 
them  that  are  chofen  as  aforefaid,  and  they  are  hereby  Authorized  to  i0  ue 
out  their  Warrants  to  the  Conftable,  under  their  Hands  and  Seals,  or 
any  other  Perfons  appointed  by  them,  to  colled  and  levy  the  lame  by 
Diftrefs  on  their  Goods  and  Chattels. 

And  be  it  further  Enadted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  the  Trea- 
furer  of  each  refpettive  County  within  this  Province,  fhall  keep  a  diftiaft 
Book  of  Accompts*  containing  a  particular  Accompt  of  all  the  Money, 
Rates |and  Affelments  aforefaid,  and  alfo  of  all  DisDurfrrjents  and  Pay- 
ments by  warfant  aforefaid,  and  once  every  Year  he  fhall  bring  in  hI5 
Accompts,  to  fuch  perfons  as  fhall  be  appointed  tor  the  audit  of  the  fame, 
under  the  Penalty  of  one  Hundred  Pounds,  except  prevented  by  Death  or 
Sicknefs. 

And  further,  whereas  it  is  the  Cuftom  and  Practice  of  their  Majefties 
Realm  of  England,  aad  all  the  adjacent  Collonics  in  America,  That  every 
refpe&ive  Town  and  Parifh  doth  take  care  and  provide  for  the  Poor, 
who  do  inhabit  in  their  refpe£Kve  Precin&s,  as  aforefaid,  Therefore  it 
is  Ena&ed  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  for  the  time  to  come,  the 
refpe&ive  Free-holders,  elected  and  chofen  as  aforefaid,  in  every  Town, 
Parifh  and  Precinct,  fliall  make  provifionfbr  the  maintenance  and  fup- 
port  of  their  Poor  refptctively* 

And  for  the  Prevention  and  Difcouragement  of  Vagabonds  and  Idle 
Perfons  to  come  into  this  Province,  from  other  parts,  and  alfo  finm  one 
part  of  the  Piovmce  to  another,  Be  it  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid, 
That  ail  Perfons  that  fhall  come  to  inhabit  within  this  Province,  or  any 
part  or  place  thereof,  and  hath  not  a  vifible  Eftate,  or  hath  not  a  manual 
Occupation,  (hall,  before  he  be  admitted  an  Inhabitant,  give  fufficient 
Surety,  That  be  {ball  not  be  a  bur  fan  or  Charge  to  the  reft  Ssve  ptace  he  (hall 
torn*  t$  inhabit.   Which  Security  fhall  continue  for  two  Year*. 

Provided  alwayes,  That  all  thofe  that  have  manual  Crafts  or  Occu« 
nations,  may  at  all  times  come  and  inhabit  in  any  place  within  this 
Province,  and  be  alwayes  admitted,  provided  he  maketh  Application 
within  eight  days  after  his  arrival  in  any  City,  Town  or  County,  as 
aforefaid,  unto  fuch  pcrfon  or  perfons  as  are  appointed  for  Governing  the 
fefpettive  parts.  C  And 


C  io  ] 


And  alio,  all  VefTcls  that  fliall  bring  any  Pafferrsers  into  this  Province, 
the  Matters  of  fuchVcffels  fhall  within  four  and  twenty  Hours  after 
arrival,  bring  a  Lift  of  fiich  Paflengers  he  brings  into  the  Province,  with 
their  Qualify  and  Conditions,  unto  the  chief  Magiftrates  of  each 
relpettive  City,  Town  or  County,  as  aforefeid,  under  the  Penalty  of 
Ten  Pounds  currant  Money  of  this  Province. 

Alwayes  provided,  That  if  any  VeflTel  bring  in  any  Perfbn  as  aforefaid, 
not  able  to  give  Surety  for  their  wifc  demeanour*  that  then,  and  in  fuch 
cafe,  That  the  Matter  of  fuch  VefTel  or  VefTels  fhall  be  obliged  to 
Tranfport  all  fuch  to  the  place  from  whence  they  came,  or  at  Jeaft  ouc 
of  this  Province  and  Dependencies. 

And  alfb,  if  any  Vagabonds,  Beggars,  or  others,  remove  from  one 
Town  to  another,  and  cannot  give  Security,  as  aforefaid,  It  /hall  be 
lawful  to  the  Conttable  to  return  fuch  Perfons  to  the  Town  from  whence 
they  came,  w 


WHereas  the  present  State  and  Condition  of  this  Province  doth 
of  neceflity  require,  that  the  Inhabitants  thereof  fhould  be 
well  armed,  and  trained  up  in  Art  Military,  as  well  for  the  Honour 
and  fervice  of  their  moft  excellent  Majefties,  as  the  Prefervation  of 
tfuir  own  Lives  and  Fortunes,  Be  it  Enacted  and  Ordained  by  the  Go- 
vernour  and  Council  y   and  Reprefentatives   convened  in  General 
AfTembI/,  And  it  is  hereby  Enacted  and  Ordained  by  the  Authority  of 
the  fame,  That  no  Perfbn  whatfocver  from  Fifteen  to  Sixty  Years  of 
Age  remain  unlitted  by  themfelves  or  Matters,  Miftri/Tes  or  Imployers, 
under  the  Captaias  in  their  refpe£Hve  places  of  abode,  in  Foot  or  Horfe, 
thefpaceof  one  Kalander  Moneth  after  their  arrival,  or  coming  to  relide~ 
or  fojourfl  in  any  place  within  this  Province,  on  Penalty  of  Twenty 
Bhillings,  and  fo  for  every  Moneth  fuch  Perlon  fhall  remain  unlitted. 
And  that  every  Foot  Souldier  be  provided  with  a  well  fixed  Mufquet 
orFufee,  or  if  the  Officer  fo  appoint,  with  a  good  Pike,  or  Sword,  or 
Lance  and  Piftol;  each  Mufquetcer  fix  Charges  of  Powder,  and  one 
Cartouth  Box,  and  fo  fhall  appear  when  and  where  appointed,  upon 
penalty  of  five  Shilfings  for  his  default  in  not  appearing ,  and  three 
Shillings  for  want  of  each  Charge  of  Powder,  Gun,  Pike,  Sword,  Piftol 
'  or  Cartouch  Box,  fb  as  the  whole  Penalty  for  any  ferfbn  at  one  time 
exceed  not  ten  Shillings.    And  that  every  Souldier  belonging  to  the 
Horfe,  fhall,  when  and  where  commanded,  appear,  and  be  provided 
with  a  good  ferviceablc  Horfe  of  his  own,  covered  with  a  good  Saddle, 
with  Holfters,  Brett-plate  and  Crupper,  and  a  Cafe  of  good  Piftols, 
Hanger,  Sword  or  Rapier,  and  half  a  pound  of  Powder,  with  twelve 
femceable  Bullets,  on  penalty  of  Ten  Shillings  for  each  times  abfence, 


and 


and  five  Shillings  for  default  of  each  of  the  particulars  above  mentioned, 
lb  as  the  whole  Penalty  for  one  time  exceed  not  fifteen  Shillings.  And 
chat  every  Foot  Souldier  fhall  have  at  his  Habitation  and  Abode  one1 
pound  of  good  Powder,  and  three  pound  of  fizeable  Bullets.  And  every 
Trooper  have  at  his  ufaal  place  of  Abode,  a  well  fixed  Carbine,  with 
Belt  and  Swivel,  and  two  Founds  of  fine  Powder,  with  fix  pounds  of 
fizeable  Bullets,  on  penalty  of  ten  Shillings  for  each  default  m?  and  that 
each  of  them  fhall  bring  the  fame  into  the  Field,  when  commanded, 
npon  Penalty  of  anfwering  the  fame  at  a  Court  Martial. 

And  for  the  fupply  of  the  Troops  of  Horfe  in  the  Cities  of  New-Tork 
and  Aibauyt  and  County  of  Vifter ,  it  fhall  be  in  the  Power  of  the 
Collonolor  chief  OBicer  of  the  Militia  of  the  City  of  Nev-Torfr,  County 
of  Albany,  and  County  of  Vtfor,  for  the  time  being,  whenibeverany  of 
the  laid  Troops  fhall  not  compjeat  the  Number  of  Fifty,  To  prefent 
doublethe  Number,  infteadof  Fuchas  are  dead,  removed,  or  wanting, 
out  of  the  principal  Inhabitants  and  Gentlemen  of  the  refpe&iveGties 
and  Counties  aforefaid,  unto  the  Governour  for  the  time  heing,  who 
from  time  to  time  may  lift  and  order  fo  many  of  them  to  be  of  the  faid 
refpe&ive  Troops,  as  may  compkat  the  Number  of  Fifty  for  their  Ma- 
jeures fervice,  and  the  fecurlty  of  this  Province.  And  evory  Perfon  ib 
prefented  to  the  Governour  for  the  time  being,  and  by  him  lifted  and 
ordered  to  be  of  the  faid  refpe&ive  Troops ,  fhall  be,  and  are  hereby 
obliged  to  ferve  in  the  faid  refpe&ive  Troops,  upon  the  Penalty  of  five 
Pounds.  Provided  neverthelefs,  That  nothing  herein  be  cooftraed  to 
extend  to  force  orcompell  any  Perfon  that  hath  or  fhall  be  in  Commit 
fion  in  this  Province,  to  lift  themfelves  in  any  Company  or  Troop,  on 
to  ferve  in  any  Capacity  beneath  their  former  CommifHon,  uniefs  fueh 
perfon  hath  been  degraded  by  a  Court  Martial. 

And  it  is  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  no 
oerfbn,  fo  lifted  as  aforefaid,  fhall  depart  thence,  without  a  Difcharge 
from  the  Commander  of  die  Company  or  Troop,  where  lifted,  oil 
Penalty  of  Twenty  Shillings.  And  that  no  Commander  of  any  Com- 
pany or  Troop  fhall  refufe,  when  defired,  to  give  a  Difcharge  in  Writing, 
to  any  that  is  removing  his  Abode  out  of  the  Precin&s  or  Piovince,  under 
the  penalty  of  five  Pounds, 

And  whereas  at  the  City  of  New-Tork>  Guards  and  Watches  are  every 
Night  fet  and  appointed,  Be  it  therefore  Ena&ed  and  Ordained  by  the 
Authority  aforefaid,  That  ir  fhall  and  may  be  lawful  for  any  perfon  or 
perfbas  lifted  in  the  Reigraent  of  the  City  and  County  or  New-Tor^ 
(except  on  Extraordinary  Occafions)  to  put  a  well  Armed  Man  in  their 
Room,  who,  if  approved  of  by  the  Captain  of  the  Guard,  fhall  excule 
his  or  their  Abfence.  Provided  always,  That  the  Commiffion  Q  hcers 
and  Serjants  of  the  refpective  Companies,  be  obliged  in  their  refpethve 
Turns  to  mouot  the  Guard  in  their  proper  Perfons.    And  that  no 


Perfon  fhall  refufe  to  be  a  Scrjant,  Corporal  or  Drummer  in  the  Com- 
pany wherein  he  is  lifted,  under  the  penalty  of  Forty  Shillings. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  and  Ordained  by  the  Aathority  aforefaid, 
That  all  Captains  of  Companies  of  Foot',  or  Troops  of  Horfe,  fball 
within  twelve  Moneths  from  and  after  the  Publication  of  this  Ad, 
provide  for  their  Companies  and  Troops,  Drums  and  Colours,  Trum- 
pets, Trumpeters,  and  Banners,  at  the  proper  Charge  of  the  refpedtive 
Officers,  Troops  and  Companies,  under  the  Penalty  of  Ten  Pounds, 
and  fo  for  every  four  Months  fuch  Commanders  fhall  remain  unprovided. 
And  that  all  the  Coilonels  of  the  refpcftive  Regiments,  or  next  chief 
Officers  in  their  abfence,  fhall  once  every  Year  at  leaft  iffue  our  their 
P Warrants  to  their  Inferiour  Officers,  commanding  them,  To  make  diligent 
fearch  end  inquiry  in  their  feveral  PrtcinBs,  that  ail  be  duel]  Lifted,  Armed 
and  Eqaiffed ;  And  to  return  tc  them  fuch  Defects  as  fhall  be  found,  tQ 
tire  end  the  lame  may  he  reformed,  onpermlty  of  Twenty  Pounds.  And 
and  that  once  every  three  Moneths,  oroftner,  as  Occafion  fhall  require, 
and  command  be  given  by  the  Captain  Genera)  or  Commander  in  chief, 
the  feveral  Companies  and  Troops  in  each  Regiment,  fhall  meet  at  the 
next  and  moft  convenient  places  to  he  appointed  by  the  refpe&ive 
Officers,  to  be  then  and  there  by  them  muftered  and  exercifed.. 

And  it  is  hereby  Enacted  and  Ordained  ,  by  the  Authority  aforefaid, 
That  during  the  time  the  laid  Officers  and  Souldiers  are  in  Arms,  they 
fhall  obferve  and  keep  all  and  every  of  the  Laws  and  Articles  of  War. 
and  give  all  due  Obedience  to  their  fuperiour  Offijers :  Which  Laws  ana 
Articles  the  Captain  General  or  Commander  in  chief,  with  Advice  of 
a  general  Council  of  War,  is  to  make  and  eftablifh,  and  the  Com- 
manders of  the  feveral  Regiments  to  give  out  Copies -of  the  faid  Articles 
unto  the  refpedive  Officers,  that  the  fame  may  be  publickly  read  once 
every  three  Months  unto  the  Souldiers,  whilft  they  are  in.  Arms,  that 
all  Perfbns  may  the  better  know  and  obferve  their  Duties.    And  if  it 
fhall  happen  that  any  tjf  the  Officers  or  Souldiers,  fhall,  when  they  are 
out  of  Arms,  endeavour  to  take  Revenge  by  force,  for  any  thing  his  or 
their  fuperiour  Officer*  lawfu!ly  did  in  pur fua nee  of  his  or  their  Duty, 
and  this  A&,  The  faid  Officers  and  Souldiers  fhall  be  brought  to  a  Court 
Martial,  and  there  punifhed,  as  if  the  Offence  had  been  done  in  Time  of 
Service  or  Exercife provided  that  the  faid  Punilhmentdonot  extend  to 
Life  or  Limb. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  once  every 
Year,  or  oftner,  if  thereunto  commanded,  each  particular  Captain  fhall 
give  to  his  Field  Officer,  and  the  Field  Officer  to  the  Captain  General  or 
Commander  In  chief,  fair  written  Rools  of  their  refpedtive  Companies 
and  Regiments.  And  if  any  Field  Officer,  Captain  or  other  inferiour 
Oft^cer  or  Souldier  fball  neglect,  or  concemn  performing  the  lawful 
Commands  of  their  refpedtive  luperiour  Officers,  he  or  they  (hall  be 
■punifrted  by  Fine,  Cafhsering,  or  other  Punifhment,  according  to  the 

Difcretion 


t>ffcretk>n  of  a  Court  Martial,  which  the  Captain  General,  or  the 
Commander  in  chief  is  to  appoint  and  eftablifh.  And  the  Orders  of 
:he  (aid  Court  Martial,  aro  hereby  declared  to  be  binding  in  all  Military 
Affairs. 

And  if  any  Perfon  upon  any  Invafion,  or  other  publick  Military 
Service,  ba  wounded  or  difiblcd,  he  fhall  be  cured  and  maintained  out 
of  the  publick  Revenue. 

And  if  any  Perfon  whatfocver  fhall  be  fued,  molefted  or  impleaded 
for  any  thing  lawfully  commanded  in  the  Execution  and  Purfuance  of 
this  prefent  Ac%,l  he  •/hall  plead  the  general  Iffue,  and  give  this  Ad 
in  Evidence ;  and  fhall  thereupon,  if  found  for  him,  recover  oofts  of 
Suit,  and  Trible  Damage. 

Provided  alwayes,  and  it  is  hereby  EsaAed  and  Declared  by  the  Au- 
thority aforefaid,  That  the  feveral  Pints  and  Forfeitures  mentioned  in 
this  Aft,  fhall  be  recovered  and  difpofed  of  aifolloweth,  viz.  That  all 
fuch  as  do  relate  to  any  Perfon  under  the  digree  of  a  Captain,  fball  be  to 
the  iefpedive  Captains,  to  defray  the  Charges  of  their  Companies  or 
Troops,  and  to  be  liviea  before  the  next  Exerciflng  day,  by  Diftrefs  and 
Sail  of  the  Offenders  Goods,  by  the  Captains  Warrant  to  the  Serjant  01 
Corporal ;  and  if  r.o  Diftrefs  bt  found,  the  punifhment  to  be  by  riding 
the  Wooden  Horfe,  or  being  tyed  Neck  and  Heels,  not  exceeding  one 
Hour,at  the  Difcretion  of  their  Officers.  But  if  the  offender  be  a  Servant, 
the  Owners  Goods  fhall  be  liable  to  the  Diftrefles  and  Sales,  as  aforefaid, 
io  that  Satisfaction  may  be  made.  And  for  all  other  Penalties  mention, 
ed  in  this  Aft,  the  fame  fhall  be  levied  by  Diftrrfs  and  Sale  of  the  OfFen. 
dots  Goods  and  Chattels,  by  tht  Proveft  Marfhal,  by  Warrant  from 
the  Captain  General  or  Commander  in  chief,  «r  the  chief  Field 
Officer,  where  fuch  Offimdors  zt: ;  one  half  thereof  fhall  be  to  the 
Captain  Gtneral,  and  tht  other  half  unto  the  faid  Field  Officers  of  that 
Regiment  where  theOifeice  is  committed.    And  if  the  Fines  that  do 
relate  to  any  Perfon  under  the  degree  of  a  Captain,  fhall  not  amount 
to  a  fum  fufficient  to  defray  the  Charge  of  the  Captains  Companies  or 
Troops,  that  then  the  over-plus  wanting  be  levied  upon  the  feveral 
Souldiers  equally,  by  Warrant  or  Order  of  the  Collonci  or  chief  Officer 
of  the  Regiment,  Troops  or  Companies. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  it  fhall 
and  may  be  lawful  for  any  Commiffion  Officer,  belonging  to  the  Re- 
giment of  the  City  of  Ncw-Tark,  under  the  degree  of  a  Captain,  in  the 
abfence  of  the  faid  Captain,  to  grant  Warrants  of  D  ftrefs  againfi:  any 
Perfon  whatfoever,  that  fhall  abfent  themfelves  frem  their  Dityon 
the  Plight  Guards,  without  fending  a  fufficient  Perfon  to  ferve  and 
watch  in  their  ftead;  which  faid  Warrants,  Co  granted,  fhall  be  as 
tfie£hial,  to  all  intents  and  purpofes  whatfoever,  as  if  they  or  any  of 
litem  had  been  granted  by  the  Captains  themfelves. 

D  »  Provided 


C  14  3 


Provided  alvvayes,  and  be  it  further  Enacted  and  Dec'ared  by  the 
Authority  aforefaid,  That  nothing  in  this  Aft  contained  be  expounded, 
conftrued  or  underftood,  todiminifh,  alter  or  abridge  the  Power  of  the 
Captain  General  or  Commander  in  chief  for  the  time  being,  but  that  in 
all  Things  and  upon  all  Occafions  he  may  aft  as  fully  and  freely,  as 
Captain  General  and  Commander  in  chief,  to  all  intents  and  purpofes, 
as  if  this  Aft  had  never  been  made,  any  thing  in  this  Aft  to  the 
contrary  notwithftanding. 

And  be  it  further  fina&ed  by  the  Authority  aforelaid ,  That  all 
Pcrfbns  lifted,  as  aforelaid,  fhall  readily  attend  and  ferve  on  the 
Watches  when  appointed,  under  the  Penalty  of  Three  Shillings, for 
each  default. 

And  it  is  alio  further  Enafted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That 'no 
Perfon  whatfoerer  prefume  to  fire  any  fmall  Arms  after  Bight  of  the 
Clock  at  Night,  unlefi  in  cafe  of  any  Alarm ,  Infurreftion ,  or  any 
other  lawful  Occafion  ;  And  in  either  of  the  faid  Cafes  four  Mufquets 
or  fmall  Arms,  diftinftly  fired,  or  where  great  Guns  are,  the  firing  of 
one  great  Gun,  and  two  Mufquets  or  fmall  Arms,  diftinftly,  and 
beating  of  a  Drum  fhall  be  taken  for  an  Alarm.  And  every  perfbn. 
that  {ball  neglcft  his  Duty  in  taking  and  giving  forward  an  Alarm,  by 
firing,  as  aforefaid,  or  fhall  be  guilty  of  firing  any  fmall  Arms  after 
Eight  of  the  Clock  at  Night,  unlefs  as  aforelaid,  fliall  be  fined,  or 
otherwife  punifhed,  at  the  Difcretion  of  a  Court  Martial,  not  extending 
to  Life  or  Limb.  And  in  cafe  of  fuch  Alarm  every  Souldier  is  imme- 
diately to  repair  armed  to  his  Colours  or  Court  of  Guard,  upon  the 
penalty  of  Five  Pounds. 

And  for  the  better  Prevention  of  falfe  Alarms,  That  no  Captain, 
Mafter  or  Commander  of  any  Ship  or  Veffol  riding  at  Anchor  in  any 
the  Harbours,  Ports  cr  Bayes  within  this  Province,  or  any  other  Perfbn, 

fre  any  Gun  after  eight  of  the  Clock  at  Night,  under  the  Penalty  of 
brty  Shillings  for  every  Gun  fo  fired  to  be  levied  by  Warrant  front 
the  chief  Officer,  not  under  the  Degree  of  a  Captain,  who  is  hereby 
impowered  to  adminifter  an  Oath,  and  give  Judgment  thereupon  by 
Diftrefs  and  Sale  of  the  Offendors  Goods ;  and  for  want  of  Diftrefs  the 
faid  chief  Officer  is  hereby  impowered  to  commit  fuch  Offendors  to  the 
Goal,  there  to  remain  until  payment  be  made  of  the  fame.  And  that 
in  cafe  the  faid  chief  Officer  fhall  not  perform  his  Duty  therein,  he  fhall 
forfeit  ten  Pounds,  to  be  levied  by  Warrant  from  the  Captain  General 
or  Commander  in  chief  for  the  time  being.  Provided  alwayes,  That 
this  claufe  fhall  in  no  ways  concern  or  extend  to  any  Captain  or  Officer 
of  any  of  his  Majefties  Ships  of  War,  for  their  firing  at  fetting  of  the 
Watch, 

^-Avlrled  alwayes,  and  it  is  hereby  further  Enafted  and  Declared  by 

ths 


the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  all  Trumpeters  and  Drtimmers  lately  jo, 
(ervtce,or  that  fhall  by  the  feveral  Captains  be  put  into  that  fervitfe,during 
the  Captains  pleafure,  fliall  fcrve  upon  the  Sallary  of  forty  Shillings 
per,  annum  for  a  Trumpeter,  and  twenty  Shillings  per  annum  for  a 
Drummer,  finding  their  Trumpet  and  Drum;  and  twenty  Shillings'  for 
a  Trumpeter,  and  ten  Shillings  for  Drummer,  if  the  Captain  find  them, 
upon  Penalty  of  forty  Shillings. 

Provided  alwayes,  and  it  is  hereby  Ena&«d  and  Declared,  That  alt 
the  Members  of  Their  Majefties  Council,  Juftices  of  the  Peace,  Sheriffs, 
Coroners,  and  all  other  Officers  of  Courts,  Minifters,  Sckool-Mafters, 
Phyfitiansand  Chyrurgions  fliall  be  free  from  being  lifted  in  any  Tipop 
or  Company  within  this  Province,  any  thing  contained  herein  to  the 
contrary  in  any  wife  notwithftanding. 


An  AB  declaring  what  are  the  Rights  Priviledges 
of  Their  Majefties  Subjeffs  inhabiting  within 
Their  Province  of  New-Tort. 

FOrafmuch  as  the  Reprelentatives  of  this  their  Majefties  Province  of 
Ne»-Torkt  now  convened  in  General  Aflembly,  arc  deeply  fenfible 
of  their  Majefties  mod  gracious  Favour,  in  reftoring  to  them  the 
undoubted  Rights  and  Priviledges  of  Englifh-men,  by  declaring  Their 
Royal  Will  and  Pleafure  in  their  Letters  Patents  to  his  Excellency, 
who  they  have  appointed  their  Captain  General  and  Governour  in  chief 
•ver  this  their  Province,  Thxt  he  Jhould,  mth  the  Confent  of  Their  Council, 
from  Time  to  Time,  as  need  (hall  require,  to  fumm§n  and  call  General 
Ajfcmblies  of  the  Inhabit ant s,  being  Free-holders,  according  to  the  Vfage  of 
Their  Maj:jties  other  Plantations  in  America  :  And  that  this  moll 
excellent  Gonftitution,  fo  necefiary,  and  fo  much  efteemed  by  our 
Anceftors,  may  ever  continue  unto  Their  Majefties  Subjects  within 
this  Their  Province  of  Ne*-Tork,  The  Reprefentativts  of  this  Thar 
Majefties  Province,  convened  jn  General  AlTembly,  do  with  all  Duty 
apd  Stbmi&on  humbly  pray,  That  the  Rights,  Liberties,  Priviledges 
and  Franchifes,  according  to  the  Laws  and  Statutes  of  their  Majefties 
Realm  of  England,  may  be  confirmed  unto  Their  Majefties  mod 
Dutiful  and  Loyal  Subjects  inhabiting  within  this  their  Province  of 
Nc»-Tork,  by  Authority  of  this  General  Atfembly,  Be  it  Ena&eJ  by 
the  Governour  and  Council ,  and  Reprefentarives  met  in  General 
Aflembly,  and  it  is  hereby  Ena&ed  and  Declared  by  the  Authority  of 
the  fame,  That  theSupream  Legiflativc  Power  and  Authority,  under 
Their  Majefties,  WiHiam  and  Mary,  King  and  Queen  of  England,  &c. 
(hall  forever  be  and  refide  in  a  Governour  in  Chiet  and  Council 

appointed 


r  16  3 

appointed  by  Their  Majefties,  their  Heirs  and  Succeflbrs  ;  and  the 
People  by  their  Reprefentatives  met  and  convened  in  Generat  AfTerably. 
That  the  Exercife  and  Adminiftration  of  the  Government  over  the  (aid 
Province,  fhall,  purftant  to  Their  Majefties-  Letters  Patents,  be  in 
the  Hud  Governour  in  Chief  and  Council,  with  whofe  Advice  and 
Content,  or  with  at  feaft  five- or  them,  he  is.  to  Rule  and  Govern  the 
lame,  according  to  the  Laws  thereof, '  and  for  any  defect  therein, 
according  to  the  Laws  of  England,  and  not  othcrwife.   That  in  cafe 
the  Governour  in  Chief  fhould  dye,  or  be  abfeat  out  of  this  Province, 
and  that  thereto  no  Perfon  within  tht  laid  Province  commflionated  by 
Their  Ma  jefties,  Their  Heirs  or  Sucteflbrs,  to  be  Governour  or  Com- 
mander in  chief,  That  then  the  Council  for  the  time  being,  or  fo  many 
of  chem  as  are  in  the  faid  Province,  do  take  upon  them  the  Admini- 
ftration of  the  Government,  and  the  Execution  of  the  Laws  thereof 
and  Powers  and  Authorities  belonging  to  the  Governour  in  chief  and 
Council;  the  fir  ft  in  Nomination  in  which  Council  is  to  prefide  until 
the  faid  Governour  mall  return  and  arrive  in  the  (aid  Province  again, 
(or  the  pleafure  of  their  Majeft ie«,  their  Heirs  and  Succeffors  be  further 
known. 

That  for  the  good  Government  and  Rule  of  their  Ma  jefties  Subjects, 
a  Seflionof  a  General  AffemUy  be  held  in  this  Province  once  every 
Year.  That  every  Free-holder  within  this  Province,  and  Free-man  in 
any  Corporation  lhalJ  have  his  free  choice  and  Vote  in  the  Electing  of 
the  Reprefentatives,  without  any  manner  of  conftraintor  impofition; 
And  that  in  all  Elections  the  majority  of  Votes  fhall  carry  it. 

And  by  Free-holders  is  to  be  unacrftood  every  one  who  fhall  have 
forty  Shillings  fennnum  Sn  Free-hold. 

That  the  Ferfbns  to  be  elided  to  fit  as  Reprefentatives  in  the  General 
AfTembly  from  time  to  time,  for  the  feveral  Cities,  Towns,  Counties, 
Shires,  Divifions  or  Mannors  of  this  Province,  and  all  places  within 
the  fame,  fhall  be  according  to  the  Proportion  and  Number  hereafter 
cspreffed.   That  is  to  fay, 

For  the  City  and  County  of  Ntrv-Tork  Four. 

For  the  County  of  Suffolk  Two. 

For  guttns  County  Two. 

For  Kjngs  County  Two. 

For  the  County  of  Richmond  Two. 

For  the  County  of  Wefichtftr  Two. 

For  the  County  or  Vlfier  Two. 

For  the  City  and  County  of  Albany  Two. 

For  the  Collony  of  RanJUetmck  One. 

And  for  Dnkes  County  Two.  And  as  many  more  as  their  Majefties, 
tkeir  Heirs  and  Succeflbrs  fhall  think  fit  to  eftablift. 

That  all  Perfbns  chofenand  aflTembled,  in  manner  aforefaid,  or  the 
major  part  of  them,  fhall  be  deemed  and  accounted  the  Reprefeata- 
tives  of  this  Province  in  General  AfTembly. 

That  the  Reprefentatives  convened  in  General  AfTemblv  may  appoint 
their  own  Times  of  meeting,  during  their  Seflions,  ana  may  adjourn 

their 


tbeir  Houfe  from  time  to  time ,  as  to  them  /hall  teem  meet  and 

convenient. 

That  the  (aid  Repretentativcs,  as  aforcfaid  convened,  a-ie»t£rfi>Ie 
Judges  of  the  Qualifications  of  their  own  Members,  and  likewife  of 
all  Under-Ele&ions;  and  may  from  time  to  time  purge' their  Houfe, 
as  they  fball  fee  occafion. 

That  no  Member  of  the  General  AfTembly,  or  their  Servants,  during 
the  time  of  their  Seflions,  and  whilft  they  fhall  be  going  to  and  return- 
ing from  the  faid  Aflembly,  (hall  be  arrefted,  fued,  imprifoned,  or  any 
way  molefted  or  tronbled,  nor  be  compelled  to  make  anfwef  to  any 
Suit,  Bill,  Plaint,  Declaration,  or  otherwite  (cafes  of  High-Treafon 
and  Fellony  only  excepted.) 

That  all  Bills  agreed  upon  by  the  faid  Repretentatives,  or  the  major 
part  of  them,  (hall  be  pretented  unto  theGovernour  and  Council  for 
their  approbation  and  content.  All  and  every  which  (aid  Bills,  (b 
approved  of  and  contented  to  by  the  Governour  and  Council,  fhall  be 
efteemed  and  accounted  the  Laws  of  this  Province.  Which  faid  Laws 
(hall  continue  and  remain'  in  force  until  they  be  difallowed  by  their 
Majefties,  their  Heirs  orSucceflfors,  or  expire  by  their  own  Limitation. 

That  in  all  cates  of  Death  or  abtence  of  any  of  the  (aid  Repretenta*. 
tives,  the  Governour  for  the  time  being  fliall  iflue  out  a  Writ  of 
Summons  to  the  refpe£hvc  Cities,  Towns,  Counties,  Divifions  or 
Mannors,  for  which  he  or  thev  lb  deceated  or  abtent,  were  choten, 
Willing  and  Requiring  tht  Fret-folders  of  the  f*me  to  cleft  others  in  tkir 
place  and  Jlead. 

That  no  Free-man  (hall  be  taken  or  Imprifoned,  or  be  deprived  of  his 
Free-hold,  or  Liberty,  or  free  Cuftoms,  or  Out-Lawed,  cr  Exiled*  or 
any  other  wayes  deftroyed ;  nor  (hall  be  paflfed  upon,  adjudged  or 
condemned,  but  by  the  lawful  Judgment  of  his  Peers,  and  by  the  Law 
of  this  Province 

Juftice  nor  Right  (hall  be  neither  Sold,  Denyed  or  Delayed  to  any 
Perfon  within  this  Province. 

That  no  Aid,  Tax,  Talliage  or  Cuftom,  Loan,  Benevolence,  Gift, 
Excife,  Duty  or  Impofition  whatfbever  (hall  be  laid,  aflefled,  impoted, 
levied  or  required  or  or  on  any  of  Their  Majefties  Subjects  within  this 
Province,  &c  or  their  Eftates,  upon  any  manner  of  Colour  or  Pre- 
tence whatfbever,  but  by  the  A&  and  Content  of  the  Governonr  and 
Council,  and  Repretentatives  of  the  People  in  General  Aflembly  met 
and  convened. 

That  no  Man,,  of  what  EAateor  Condition  foever,  (hall  be  put  out 
of  his  Lands,  Tenements ,  nor-  taken  ,  nor  imprifoned  ,  nor  difl 
inherit  :d,  norbanifhed,  nor  any  ways  deftroyed  or  molefted,  without 
firft  being  brought  ro  anfwer  by  duecourteof  Law. 

That  a  Free -man  fliall  not  be  amerced  for  a  fmall  Fault,  but  after  the 
manner  of  his  Fault,  and  for  a  great  Fault  after  the  greatnefs  thereof, 
faving  to  him  his  Free-hold  ;  and  a  Husband-man,  (aving  to  him  his 
Wamage;  and  Merchant,  laving  to  him  his  Merchandize  ;  and  none 
of  thete  Amercement  fball  be  affdTed,  but  by  the  Oath  of  Twelve 

E  Honeft 


C  x8  3 

Honcft  and  Lawful  men  of  the  Vicinage.  Provided,  the  Faults  and 
Mifdemeanours  be  not  in  Contempt  of  Courts  of  Judicature.  All 
Tryals  fhall  be  by  the  Verdict  of  Twelve  Men,  and  as  near  as  may  be 
Peers  or  Equals,  and  of  the  Neighbourhood  of  the  place  where  the 
factjfhall  arife  or  grow,  whether  the  fame  be  by  Indictments,  Declara- 
tion ,  Information,  or  otherwayes,  againft  the  Perfbn  Offender  or 
Defendant. 

That  in  all  Cafes  Capital  and  Criminal,  there  fhall  be  a  grand  Inqueft, 
who  fhall  firft  prelent  the  Offence,  and  then  Twelve  Good  Men  of 
the  Neighbourhood  to  Try  the  Offender,  who,  after  his  Plea  to  the 
Indictment,  fhall  be  allowed  his  realbnable  Challanges. 

That  in  all  Cafes  whatfoever,  Bay  I  by  fufhcient  Sureties  fhall  be 
allowed  and  taken,  unlefs  for  Treafon  and  Fellony,  plainly  and  fpecially 
expreffed  and  mentioned  in  the  Warrant  of  Commitment,  and  that  the 
Fellony  be  fuch  as  is  rcftrained  from  Bayl  by  the  Laws  of  England. 

That  no  Free-man  fhall  be  compelled  to  receive  any  Souldiers  or 
Marriners,  except  Inholders,  and  other  Houfes  of  publick  Entertain- 
ment, who  are  to  quarter  for  ready  Money  into  his  Houfe,'  and  there 
futfer  them  to  fbjourn  again  rheir  Wills ;  provided  it  be  not  in  time  of 
actual  War  within  this  Province. 

That  no  Commiffion  for  proceeding  by  Martial  Law,  againft  any  of 
Their  Majefties  Subjects  within  this  Province,  &c.  fhall  iffue  forth  to 
any  Perfbn  orPerfbns  whatfoever,  leaft  by  colour  of  them  any  of  their 
Majefties  Subjects  be  deftroyed  or  put  to  Death,  except  all  fuch  Officers 
and  Souldiers  that  are  in  Garrifon,  and  in  pay  during  the  time  of  actual 
War. 

That  all  the  Lands  within  this  Province  fhall  be  efteemed  and 
accounted  Lands  of  Free-hold,  and  Inheritance  in  free  and  common 
Soccage,  according  to  the  Tenor  of  Eafl-Greenwkh  in  their  Majefties 
Realm  of  England. 

That  no  Eftate  of  a  Feme  Covert  fhall  be  fold  or  conveyed,  but  by- 
Deed  acknowledged  by  her  in  fome  Court  of  Record,  the  Woman 
being  fecretly  examined,  if  fhedoth  it  freely,  without  threats  or  com- 
pulfion  of  her  Husband. 

That  all  Wills  in  Writing,  attefted  by  thfe«  or  more  credible  Wit- 
nelfes,  fhall  be  of  the  fame  force  to  convey  Lands,  as  other  Conveyances, 
being  proved  and  Regiftered  in  the  proper  Offices  in  each  County, 
within       days  after  the  Teftators  Death. 

That  all  Lands  and  Heritages  within  this  Province  and  Dependencies 
fhall  be  free  from  all  Fines,  Lifences  upon  Alienations,  and  from  all 
Heriots,  Wardfhips,  Liveries,  Primiers,  Seizins,  Year  and  Day,  and 
Wafte,  Efcheat  and  Forfeiture  upon  the  Death  of  Parents  and  Anceftors, 
Natural,  Unnatural,  Cafual  or  Judicial,  and  that  forever ,  Cafes  of 
High-Treafon  only  excepted. 

That  no  Perfon  of  what  Degree  or  Condition  foever  throughourthis 
Province,  chofen,  appointed,  or  com miilionated  to  officiate  or  execute 
any  Office  or  Place,  Civil  or  Military  withm  this  Province,  &c.  /hall 
be  capable  in  the  Law  to  take  upon  him  the  charge  of  fuch  Place  before 

he 


C  19] 


he  hath  firft  taken  the  Oathes  appointed  by  Aft  of  Parliament  to  be 
taken  in  lieu  of'  the  Oathes  of  [Supremacy  and  Allegiance,  and  fubferibe 


That  no  Perfon  or  Perfons  which  profefs  Faith  in  God  by  Jefus  Chrifl: 
his  only  Son,  (hall  at  any  time  be  any  way  moleftcd,  punifhed,  di« 
fturbed,  difquiettd  or  called  in  queftion  for  any  Difference  in  Opinion* 
or  matter  of  Religious  Concernment,  who  do  not  under  that  pretence 
dtfturb  the  Civil  Peace  of  the  Province,  &c.  And  that  all  and  every 
fuch  Perfon  and  Perfons  may  from  time  to  time,  and  at  all  times  here- 
after, freely  have  and  fully  enjoy  his  or  their  Opinion,  Perfwafions 
and  Judgments  in  matters  of  Confcience  and  Religion,  throughout  all 
this  Province ;  and  freely  meet  at  convenient  Places  within  this 
Province,  and  there  Worfhip  according  to  their  refpe&ive  Perfwafions, 
without  being  hindered  or  molefted,  they  behaving  themfelves  peace- 
ably, quietly,  modeftly  and  Religioufly,  and  not  ufing  this  Liberty 
to  Licentioufnefs,  nor  to  the  civil  Injury  or  outward  Difturbance  of 
others.  A  Ivvayes  provided,  That  nothing  herein  mentoined  or  con- 
tained fhall  extend  to  give  Liberty  to  any  Perfons  of  the  komijb  Rtligio* 
toexercife  their  manner  of  Worfhip,  contrary  to  the  Laws  and  Statutes 
of  their  Majefties  Kingdom  of  England. 


An  Att  for  the  Allowance  to  the  Reprefentatives. 


\  V  officiate  and  difcharge  that  honourable  and  great  Truft 
repofed  in  them,  without  being  at  great  Charge  and  Expence,  Be  it 
therefore  Enacted  by  the  Qovernour  and  Council,  and  Reprefentatives 
convened  in  General  Aflembly,  and  it  is  hereby  Ena&ed  by  the  Autho- 
rity of  the  fame,  That  the  Wages  or  the  Allowance  to  each  Reprelen* 
tative  of  the  People ,  (hall  be  Ten  (hillings  currant  Money  of  this 
Province  per  Diem,  to  commence  from  their  coming  out,  till  their 
return  Home.  Alwayes  provided  it  fhall  not  exceed  eight  dayes  before 
the  meeting  of  Ithe  Aflembly,  and  eight  dayes  after  their  adjourning, 
proroguing  or  dirTolving  of  the  fame. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefkid,  That  each 
refpe&ive  City  and  County  throughout  this  Province,  fhall  bear  and 
defray  the  Charge  of  their  own  Reprefentatives  ;  which  Charge  or 
Allowance,  as  aiorclaid,  fhall  be  paid  to  the  refpe&ive  Reprefentatives 
by  the  Treafurcr  of  each -re  fpe&ivc  City  and  County,  by  warrant  under 
the  Hand  and  Seal  of  the  Mayor  of  the  refpe&ive  Cities  for  the  time 
being,  and  by  Warrant  of  any  two  Juftices  of  the  Peace,  to  the  Trea- 
furerof  the  refpective  Counties,  within  ten  dayes  after  the  Return  of 
the  faid  Reprefentatives  from  the  Aflembly  • 


the  Teft. 


C  86  1 


Am  AB  to  Enable  the  City  and  County  of  Albany  t4 


EOrafmuch  *as  the  Inhabitants  of  the  City  and  County  of  Albany 
have  been,  during  the  time  of  the  late  Diforders,  very  mudi 
grieved >  wafted,  deftroyed  arid  impoverifhed  by  the  Incurfions  of 
the  trench,  their  Majefties  declared  Enemies',  and  that  it  is  abfblutely 
neceffary  that  fbme  fuitable  and  convenient  way  fhould  be  found  out 
for  their  Relief  and  more  eafie  defraying  of  the  neceiFary  Charge  of  that 
City  and  County,  Be  it  therefore  Ena&ed  by  the  Governor  and  Council* 
and  Reprefentatives  convened  in  General  Aflembly,  and  it  is  hereby 
Ena&ea  by  the  Authority  of  the  fame,  That  the  Impofition  or  Rate  of 
Trvofer  Cent,  fhall  be  raifed  and  levied  upon  all  Indian  Goods  that  aro 
brought  up  to  that  City  and  County  of  Albany,  and  there  fold  or  con* 
fumed.   And  alfb,  That  the  Impoft  of  Three  Pence  be  raifed  and  levied 
upon  each  Gallon  of  Rum  that  is  fold  and  confumed  within  that  City 
and  County.    And  for  the  due  and  orderly  colle^ing  of  the  laid 
refpettivc  Impofts  and  Rates,  the  Treafurer  of  the  faid  City  for  the 
time  being,  or  any  appointed  by  him,  and  the  Mayor  of  the  laid  City, 
under  the  publick  Seal  of  the  faid  City,  are  hereby  impowered  and 
a'tfthorizcd  to  appoint,  conftitute  and  eftablifh  a  Collector  or  Receiver 
of  the  Rates  ana  Impofts  aforefaid,  who  fhall  have  Power  to  receive  the 
lame,  and  to  enter  in  a  fair  Book,  kept  for  that  purpofe,  all  fuch  Sum 
and  Sums  of  Money  as  fliall  be  fo  entered  and  received  for  the  reff  eftdve 
Duties  aforefaid ;  the  faid  Collector  or  Receiver  appointing  certain 
convenient  Times  and  Places  for  the  keeping  of  the  Office,  as  fhall 
be  directed  by  the  Court  of  Mayor  and  Aldermen,  and  Affiftance  of 
the  faid  City.   And  all  Perfons  that  Trade  and  bring  up  to  the  faid  City 
and  County  the  afore- mentioned  Indian  Goods  and  Rumy  are  hereby 
required  to  make  a  Report  of  the  Quantity  and  Value  of  fuch  Goods 
and  Rum  they  fo  bring  up  and  fell  in  the  City  and  County  aforefaid, 
and  pay  the  Duties  and  Impofts  hereby  eftablifhed,  without  being  at 
any  further  Charge  rhari  the  faid  Duty.    Andin  Default  hereof  it  fliall 
be  lawful  fbr  the  Mayor,  Treafurer,  or  any  other  Officer  hereby 
Authorized,  to  iflue  out  hisor  their  Warrant,  under  his  or  their  Hand 
and  Seal,  for  the  feiiing  of  all  fuch  Goods  and  Rum  as  fhall  be  im- 
bezele-d,  and  not  pay  the  Duties  aforefaid,  One  Third  to  the  Imformer^ 
One  Third  to  the  {aid  City  and  County  of  Albany,  and  One  Third  to 
his  Excellency  the  Governour  or  Commander  in  Chief  for  the  time 
being.   Provided,  That  all  the  Sum  and  Sums  of  Money  that  arc 
hereby  received,-  fhall  be  only  appropriated  and  applycd  to  the  defraying 
of  the  necefTaYy.  Charges  of  the  City  and  County  aforefaid.    And  that 
the  Treafurer,  Collector  or  Receiver  for  the  time  being,  fhall  not  pay 
any  of  the  Money  received  as  aforefaid,  but  by  Warrant  from  the 


Maydf 


t  2i  3 

Mayor  of  the  faidGtv,  and  approved  by  the  Court  or  Aldermen  and 
Alftftants.  Provi9ed,  That  this  A&  (hall  only  remain  in  force  (or  the 
fpaceof  three  Yearr,  and  no  longer,  any  thing  contained  herein  to  the 
contrary  in  any  ways  notwithstanding. 


An  ./IS  for  Eftablishing  a  Revenue  for  the  defraying 
the  Public^  Charges  of  the  Province. 

FOr  the  better  defraying  of  the  publick  and  neceffary  Charges  and  E<- 
pences  of  this  Province ,  which  cannot  otherwife  be  effe&ed, 
without  great  Charge  unto  Their  Majefties,  Be  it  Ena&ed  by  the 
Governour,  Council  and  Reprefentatives  now  met  in  General  Affembly, 
and  by  the  Authority  of  the  fame,  That  the  Duties,  Cuftoms  and 
Excite  hereafter  fpecified,  be  given  and  granted  unto  their  {aid  Majefties^ 
to  the  intent  aforefaid,  That  is  to  fay, 

For  every  Gallon  of  Rum,  Brandy  and  Diftilled  Liquors,  thatfball 
be  imported  into  this  Province  and  Dependencies,  the  Sum  of  four 
Pence  currant  Money  of  this  Province. 

And  for  every  Pipe  of  Madera  Wine,  Fyall,  St.  Georges,  Cmarfo 
MaUego,  Sherry  and  all  fweet  Wines,  the  Sum  of  Forty  Shilling* 
currant  Money  aforefaid. 

And  for  every  Hogfliead  of  White,  Red  and  Rhenifh  Wine,  the  Sura 
of  Twenty  Shillings,  currant  Money  aforefaid. 

And  upon  all  other  Merchandize  imported  into  this  Province  and 
Dependencies,  the  Sam  of  Forty  Shillings,  currant  Money  aforefaid, 
for  every  Hundred  Pound  value  at  the  pjrime  Coft,  except  thefe  here- 
after  fpecified,  visa.  Salt,  Brick,  Pantilts,  Coals,  fijh,  Sugar,  MaUJfc.r. 
Cotton-Wool*-  Ginger,  Logword,  BrazeSetto,  Futthk,  or  any  other  fort  oe 
Dying  Wood,  Coccoa,  Hides,  Tobacco,  Bullion  and  Plate,  Pork,  0)1,  far% 
Flax,  Snap,  Candles.,  Cheefe,  Butter,  Beef,  Ftjb,  Whale-Bone,  Flops, 
Apples,  Pears,  Sydtr,  Fire-wood,  Planks,  Boards,  Peltry,  Beaver,  Sheets 
Wool,  Onions,  DrefTed  and  UndreflTed  Deer  Skins,  Tattov,  H  ies,  Sart% 
Honey,  Bets-Wax,  Bay-Wax,  Indian  Corn,  Wheat,  Birley,  Rye,  Peafet 
or  any  other  fort  of  Grain,  or  any  other  thing  of  the  Growth  and  Pr«« 
du&ion  of  our  Neighbouring  Collonies  and  Plantations  in  America, 

Andbeit  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid.  That  there  be 
alfb  given  and  granted  unto  their  laid  Majefties,  for  ihe  intent  aforefaid, 
upon  all  Merchandize,  commonly  called  by  the  Name  of  Indian  Goods 
or  Duflils,  Stroads,  Blankets,  Plains,  half  Thicks,  Woolen  Stockings, 
White Ozenburgs,  Kettles.Hatcfiets,  Hoes,  Knives,  Red  Le^d, Vermilion, 
Cotton,  Red  Kerfies,  Indian  Haberdafhery,  and  other  Indian  Goods, 
the  Sum  of  Ten  Pounds  currant  Money  aforefaid,  for  everv  Hundred 
Pounds  Value  prime  coft,  that  fhall  be  carried  up  Htdfons  (liver  in  any 
VefTel,  Sloop,  Boat  or  Canow,  or  any  other  way.   A.id  that  the 

F  Value 


[  22  3 

Value  of  the  prime  Coft  fhall  be  at  the  Rate  hereafter  mentioned 
provided,  That  all  Kettles  that  fhall  contain  above  eight  Gallons,  ihafl 
pay  none  of  this  Duty,  viz.. 

Indian  Duffils  to  be  valued  at  Two  Shillings  and  Four  Pence  the  Yard. 

Indian  Stroad,  half  a  piece,  Four  Pound.  A  whole  piece  Eight 
Pounds. 

Indian  Blankets,  each  piece  four  Pounds. 

Indian  plain  Cotton,  per  Yard  one  Shilling  and  fix  Pence. 

Indian  half  thick'd,  per  Yard  one  Shilling  and  ten  Pence. 

Indian  White  Ozenburgs,  the  Englifh  Ell  eight  Pence. 

Indian  Kettles,  each  hundred  weight,  fix  Pounds. 

Indian  Hatchets,  the  dozen,  twelve  Shillings. 

Indian  Hoes,  the  dozen,  twelve  Shillings. 

Red  Lead,  each  Hundred  weight  twenty  Shillings. 

Vermillion,  per  Pound  four  Shillings. 

Cotton  per  Yard  one  Shilling  and  four  Pence. 

Red  Kerfey  per  Yard  two  Shillings  and  fix  Pence. 

Knives  per  dozen  three  Shillings. 

Indian  Shirts  per  dozen  twenty  Shillings. 

Indian  Drawing  Knives,  Looking-Glaffes,  Indian  Wooden  Combs, 
Indian  Beeds,  Tobacco  in  Rolls,  Indian  Bells,  Sciflars,  Jews  Harps, 
Indian  Points,  Drills,  Tobacco  Pipes,  little  painted  Boxes,  Auls,  Sword 
Blades,  Copper  Tobacco  Boxes,  Tinfey  Lace,  Indian  Gimp  Lace, 
Needles,  Tobacco  Tonges,  Indian,  Powder  Horns,  Indian  Woolen 
Stockens,.and  Indian  Steels,  the  fum  of  ten  Pound  currant  Money 
aforefaid,  for  every  hundred  Pounds  Value  prime  Coft,  that  fhall  be 
carried  up,  as  aforefaid. 

And  for  every  Barrel  of  Powder  fix  Shillings. 

For  every  hundred  weight  of  Leed  fix  Shillings. 

For  every  Gun  with  or  without  a  Lock,  fix  Shillings,  which  fhallbe 
carried  up  Hudfons  River t  as  aforefbid. 

And  alio,  for  every  Gallon  of  Rum  which  fhail  hereafter  be  carried 
up  Hudfons  River }  as  aforefaid,  four  Pence. 

And  be  it  further  Ena&ed  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  there  be 
given  and  granted,  and  there  is  hereby  given  and  granted  unto  them, 
for  the  Ufe  aforefaid,  an  Excife  upon  all  Brandy,  Rum,  and  all  other 
Diftilled  Liquors,  to  be  retailed  within  this  Province,  under  fifteen 
Gallons,  the  Sum  of  twelve  Pence,  Money  aforefaid,  for  each  Gallon 
lb  retailed 

And  alfo,  an  Excife  of  twelve  Pence,  currant  Money  aforefaid,  on 
each  Gallon  of  Wine,  under  the  Quantity  of  five  Gallons,  fo  retailed,, 
as  aforefaid. 

Andalfb,  That  all  Beer  and  Syder  retailed  throughout  this  Province 
^and  Dependencies,  fhall  pay  fix  Shillings  for  each  Barrel  fo  retailed. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  there  be 
given  and  granted,  and  there  is  hereby  further  given  and  granted  unro 

Their 


Their  laid  MajcfHes,  for  the  ule  aforefaid.  a  Cuftom  and  T>0't%  that 
is  to  (ay,  Upon  every  Beaver  Skin,  commonly  called  a  whole  Beaver, 
the  Sum  of  Nine  Pence,  currant  Money  aforefaid 

And  that  all  other  Furs  and  Peltry  be  valued  and  raped  accordingly 
That  is  to  fay, 

For  two  half  Beavers  nine  Pence. 

For  four  Laps  nine  Pence. 

For  three  Drillings  one  Shilling  and  fix  Pence. 

For  ten  Raccoons  nine  Pence. 

For  four  Foxes  nine  Pence. 

For  four  Fifliers  nine  Pence. 

For  five  Cats  nine  Pence. 

For  fix  Minks  nine  Peace. 

For  one  Otter  fix  Pence. 

For  two  Bear  Skins  nine  Pence. 

For  four  Wolfes  nine  Pence. 

For  four  and  twenty  Musk-Rats  nine  Pence. 

For  ten  Matters  nine  Pence. 

For  every  Twenty  four  Pounds  of  Mule  and  Deer  Skins 

And  for  Ox,  Bull  and  Cow  Hides,  fix  Pence  per  Hide,  Spaoift  and 

Wtf -India  Hides  only  excepted. 
And  all  other  Peltry  to  be  valued  equivalent  to  a  whole  Beaver, 

nine  pence,  to  be  exported  out  of  this  Province. 

And  be  it  farther  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  for  the 
due  and  orderly  collecting  of  the  aforefaid  Duties,  Cuftoms  and  Exciieu 
and  alio  for  the  preventing  of  Fraud  and  Imbezelments  of  the  faiol 
Duties,  Cuftoms  and  ExciTe,  That  all  Ships  and  Vedels  whatfoever 
that  (hall  come  to  any  Port,  Creek  or  Harbour  within  this  Province 
and  Dependencies,  to  Trade  or  Traffick,  the  Mafter,  Mare  or  Purler 
DiaU  come  to  fuch  p'ace  or  places  as  Ihall  be  appointed  by  the  Governor 
or  their  Ma  jerries  Collector  for  the  time  being,  and  there  make  Report 
of  all  fuch  parcel  or  parcels  of  Merchandize  and  other  things,  as  he 
hath  on  board  fuch  Ship  or  Veflel,  and  alio  declare  upon  his  Corpora! 
Oath,  That  he  hath  not  broke  Bulkfince  his  arrival  within  this  Province, 
before  he  made  fuch  Report  as  is  required. 

And  alio ,  all  Merchants  that  nave  any  Goods  or  Merchandize 
whatlbever,  (hall  at  fuch  place  or  places  as  is  above  directed,  make  a 
true  and  diftinct  Entry  of  all  fuch  parcel  or  parcels  of  Goods  or  Mer- 
chandize he  hath  on  board  uich  Ship  or  Veucl,  according  as  they  ecft 
biraat  prime  coft ;  and  if  any  Difference  lhall  a'ifc  about  the  value  of 
the  faid  Goods  and  Merchandize,  then  die  Collector,  or  any  appointed 
for  the  Collection  of  the  faid  Duties  or  Cuftoms,  may  a  Iminifter  to  all 
or  any  fuch  Pcrfon  or  Per  fans,  making  fuch  Entry,  their  '  orpo  a! 
Oathes,  That  the  faid  Entry  is  according  to  the  Invoice  or  Invices  fent  to  him 
or  them  from  the  place  or  places  from  whence  fuch  Goods  did  come. 

And  further,  It  is  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforelaid,  That  if  any 

Maaer, 


Maftcr,  Mate  or  Purfer  of  any  Ship  or  Vtffe!  tvhatfbever,  or  any 
Merchant,  Factor,  or  other,  (hall,  contrary  to  the  Rules  above  pre- 
feribed,  break  Bulk  or  Land  any  Goods  or  Merchandize  whatfoever, 
before  he  or  they  make  fuch  a  Report  or  Entry,  and  pay  fuch  Duties 
as  required  by  this  Act,  then  and  in  fuch  cafa  the  Mafter  of  fuch  Ship  or 
VefTel  that  (hall  break  Bulk  before  making  fuch  Report,  as  above,  (hall,, 
upon  proof  of  two  Evidences,  forfeit  his  Ship  or  VefleJ,  with  all  her 
Tackle,  Furniture  and  Ammunition,  one  third  part  to  their  Majefties, 
one  third  to  the  Governour  of  this  Province ,  and  one  third  to  the 
Informer,  to  be  fued  for  in  any  Court  of  Record  within  this  Province, 
by  Bill,  Plaint  or  Information,  wherein  no  Effoin,  Protection  or  Wager 
of  Law  (hall  be  allowed. 

Andalfo,  all  fuch  Goods  as  (hall  be  landed,  without  Entry  made, 
as  afore  directed,  (hall  be  forfeited,  on  theTeftimony  of  two  or  more 
fufficient  and  credible  Witnefles,  one  third  to  their  Majefties,  one  third 
to  the  Governour,  and  one  third  to  the  Informer,  that  (hall  (he,  as 
above. 

And  bs  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  afore(aid,That  all  Matters 
of  Ships  or  Vefiels  that  are  within  this  Province,  and  do  not  belong  to 
this  Province,  or  any  part  thereof,  and  bound  to  any  Port  within  or 
without  this  Province,  (hall,  before  they  take  in  any  merchandize  above 
expreffed,  come  to  fuch  place  or  places  as  (hall  be  appointed  for  the 
collecting  the  Rates  eftablifhed  by  this  Act,  and  there  make  Entrv  and 
Report  or  their  defign,  and  enter  into  Bond  to  the  value  of  one  Thou- 
fand  Pounds,  with  fufficient  Sureties,  That  he  of  they  {ball  not  take  on 
Board>  direftly  or  indirectly)  without  fuch  Permit  or  Ccrttfie/tte  from  the 
Collector,  tr  fome  ont having  Authority  under  him  for  the  fume.    And  if 
he  or  they  do  take  on  board  any  Goods  or  Mcrchandrze,  contrary  to 
the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  this  Law,  then  he  or  they  (hall  forfeit 
his  or  their  (aid  Bond,  to  be  fued  for  within  three  Moneths  after  fuch 
fa£t,  committed,  or  otherwue  to  be  void,  and  of  none  effect. 

Andaho,  for  the  due  and  orderly  Collection  of  the  Excite  above 
granted,  Be  it  hereby  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  all 
Retailers  of  Wine,  Rum,  Brandy,  or  any  other  ftrong  Liquor  within 
this  Province,  (hall,  upon  their  purchafe  and  receipt  or  all  fuch  Liquor 
or  Liquors  before  expreflbd  or  Exeifeable.  come  to  the  Office  or  Officer 
of  the  Excite,  and  there  or  with  him  mere  Entry  of  all  fuch  Liquor 
or  Liquors  as  they  (hall  buy  and  receive,  and  pay  fuch  Duties  as  are 
hereby  appointed,  wirhin  four  and  twenty  Hours,  or  as  foonasmay  be, 
without  great  Inconvenicncy ;  Providcd'an  Officer  for  that  purpofc 
be  eftabhlhed  in  «ach  Town  throughout  the  Province;  and  on  default 
thereof,  all  fuch  Liquors  as  (hall  be  found  in  any  Retailers  Houfe 
within  this  Province  or  Dependencies,  as  have  not  been  duely  enrred 
and  pard  the  Rates  above  exprefTed,  Then  and  in  fuch  cafc  on  the  Te« 
ftimonyof  two  or  more  fubftantial  Witnefles,  the  (aid  Retailer  cr 
Retailers,  (b  offending  in  the  Premifcs,  (hail  forfeit  fuch  Lrquors. 


And  in  cafe  the  value  thereof  JhaUbeunderthefiimoffive  Pounds  cur* 
rant  Money  aforefaid4,  Hull  likewife,  and  beyond  forfeit,  pay  the  rrible 
Value  of  fuch  Liquors,  one  half  to  the  Informer,  and  the  other  half  to 
pnblick  Treafury  of  this  Province,  to  be  fued  for  in  any  Court  of 
Record  within  each  County  whore  any  luch  Action  of  Actions  fliall 
arife,  wherein  no  Eflbin,  Prote&on  or  Wager  of  Law  (hall  'be 
allowed. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted,  Tliat  if  any  Perfon  or  Perfbns  within  this 
Province  and  Dependencies,  not  being  thereunto  duely  Lifenced,  fhall 
at  any  time  hereafter  preCume  to  (ell  by  Retail  the  Liquors  afbre&id, 
that  is  to  fay,  lefs  quantity  at  one  time  than  fifteen  Gallons,  the  Perfon 
lb  offending,  (hall  forfeit  and  pay  the  fiimof  five  Pounds  for  every 
fuch  Offence,  being  thereof  convi&ed  by  the  Oarhesof  two  or  more 
fubftantial  Evidences,  to  be  fued  and  im  ployed  for  in  fuch  manner  and 
proportions  as  is  laft  aforefaid. 

And  be  it  further  Ena&ed,  That  all  Mafters  and  Commanders  of 
Ships,  Sloops,  Boats,  or  any  other  VdJel  belonging  to  this  Province, 
and  its  Dependencies,  fhaU  repair  to  the  (aid  Cuftora-Houfe,  or  other 
place  or  places  that  fhaU  be  appoiated  for  that  purpofe,  and  there  enter 
into  Bond  of  one  Hundred  Pounds,  That  tb&  /ball  pot  direBly  or  indire&ly 
fake  on  Boxrd  or  curry  &«xy  out  of  this  Province  and  Diffident?!,  any  of  the 
•for/aid  Gotdt  or  MtrcbtndUes,  without  paying  fuck  QuQotns  and  JDutks 
it  arc  before  oxfrtfed. 

Provided  alfb,  That  all  Indian  Traders  throughout  the  whole  Pro- 
trineeand  Dependencies  do  pay  for  the  value  of  each  hundred  Pounds 
prime  colt,  thev  lb  Traffick  with  the  Indians*  the  fum  of  Ten  Pounds, 
^toncy  aforefaid. 

Alwayes  provided,  and  it  is  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  afore- 
faid, That  it  any  of  the  Goods,  Merchandize,  Wine,  Rumy  Brandy* 
and  other  diftilled  Liquors,  for  which  the  Duties,  in  this  Act  mentioned* 
is  paid*  or  fecured  to  be  paid  at  the  Importation,  be  Exported  out  of 
this  Province,  within  fixMoneths  after  their  Importation,  then  the 
moyety,or  one  half  of  the  aforefaid  Duties,  in  this  A&  mentioned,  (hall 
he  returned,  for  as  much  as  (hall  be  fb  exported,  the  Exporter  making 
Oath  in  the  Grftom  Houfe,  That  the  whole  Duty  hath  bun  wholly  paid  for 
the  faid  Wines  and  Liquors,  at  the  Importation;  and  that  there  hath  beefs  no 
Fraud  or  Mixture  ufU  to  encreafe  the  faid  Lionon,  to  be  exported.  And 
that  thereupon  he  bring  a  Certificate  from  the  Surveyor  or  Searcher, 
That  the  faid  Wines  or  Liquors  are  accordingly  Shipped.  Any  thing  con- 
tained here  unto  the  contrary  in  any  ways  notwithstanding. 

Provided  always, That  this  Aft,  and  all  things  therein  contained,  (hall 
only  continue  and  remain  in  force  for  the  time  and  fpace  of  two  Years 
next  and  after  the  Publication  thereof,  and  no  longer,  any  thing  con- 
tained heroin  to  the  contrary  in  any  waves  notwithftanding, 

G  4m 


C  26  } 


An  Att  to  enable  his  Excellency  to  defray  his  extraordi- 
nary Expence,  and  to  Indemmfie  the  Collector  and 
^ceiver  General  for  the  Receipt  of  federal  Sums 
of  Money  on  pretence  of  Cuflom  and  Duty. 

THe  Reprefentativos  convened  in  General  Aflembly,  being  very 
fenfiblc  that  the  great  Confufions  and  many  Diforders  that 
were  in  the  Province  on  your  Excellency's  arrival,  mult  needs 
occafion  unto  your  Excellency  an  extraordinary  and  great  Expence ; 
and  they  being  likewife  weft  aflured  of  the  good  AffeQion  your 
fxcellency  has  for  the  Inhabitants  of  this  Province,  and  for  thf  great 
Care  your  Excellency  hath  taken  for  the  conferving  the  Peace  thereof. 
And  tbrafmuch  as  their  Maj«fties  Collector  and  Receiver  General  has 
fince  the  29th  of  Jk**^,  exclufive,  laftpaft,  received  from  the  Inha- 
bitants of  this  Province  feveral  Sums  of  Money  for  Duties,  Cuftoras, 
and  other  Impofitions,  formerly  accuftorned  to  be  taken,  but  not 
warrantable  by  the  Law.  For  the  removal  of  the  many  Controverfos 
and  Difputes  that  may  arife  hereby,  and  alfo  for  the  better  defraying 
the  extraordinary  Expenses  your  Excellency  has  been  at,  do  pray  that 
it  maybe  Enacted  by  your  Excellency  and  Council,  and  Reprefenta- 
tives  convened  in  General  Aflembly, 

And  be  it  hereby  enacted  by  the  Authority  of  the  fame,  That  all 
the  Sum  and  Sums  of  Money  for  any  Duty,  Cuftom,  Impofition,  or 
any  other  pretence  whatfoever,  received  by  their  Majefties  Receiver 
General,  fince  the  twenty  nineth  day  of  JwiMrp,  cxclufive,  nowlaft 
part,  until  the  day  of  a  Publication  of  a  certain  A£l  now  made  and 
eftablifhed  in  this  prefent  Seffionsof  Aflembly,  entituled,  An  s.ft  far 
the  eftoblift>ing  d  Revenue,  ftr  the  defraying  the  publick  and  neceffarp  Charges 
of  the  Province,  are  hereby  given  and  granted  unto  his  laid  Excellency, 
for  the  intent  aforefaid.  And  the  faid  Collector  and  Receiver  General 
is  hereby  required  and  authorized  to  account  and  pay  unto  bis  (aid 
Excellency,  when  he  fhall  be  thereunto  required,  all  and  every  of  the 
faid  Sum  and  Sums  of  Money,  foby  him  received,  within  and  during 
the  time  aforementioned.  And  for  his  fo  doing,  this  Act  fhall  be  a 
good  and  fufficient  Warrant  unto  him  the  faid  Collector,  his  bxecutors 
and  Adminiftrators  forever. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid.  That  their 
Majefties Collector  and  Receiver  General  aforefaid,  is  hereby  indemni- 
fied from  all  manner  of  Plaints,  Suits  or  Demands  whatfoever*  from 
any  Perfon  or  Perfbns  on  the  account  of  any  Sum  or  Sum* of  Money 
fo  received  by  him,  during  the  time  aforefaid,  and  that  if  anyAHvp, 
Bill,  F laint  or  Information  fhall  be  brought,  moved  or  profecu' td  a» 

any 


any  time  hereafter  againft  the  GudColle&or,  his  Executors  or  Admi- 
nittrators,  for  or  concerning  any  Sum  or  Sums  or  Money  fo  received  by 
him,  daring  the  time  aforefaid,  he  or  any  of  them  fbfued  and  profe- 
cuted  in  any  Court  whatibever,  fhail  and  may  plead  rhe  general  Iffue, 
Hot  Guilty,  and  upon  any  IfTue  joyned,  may  give  this  A  ft,  and  the 
fpecial  matter  in  Evidence.  And  if  the  PlantifFor  Profecntor  (hill  be 
Non-fuited,  or  forbear  further  Profecution,  or  fuffer  Diicontinuance, 
or  Verdict  pals  againft  him,  the  Defendant  or  Defendants  fha  11  recover 
their  tribleCofls,  for  which  they  fhall  have  like  Remedy  as  in  cafe 
where  Cods  by  the  Law  are  given  to  Defendants. 

And  whereas  there  are  feveral  Arrearages  of  Cu Moms  and  Duties 
in  the  Moocth  of  Jane,  which  was  in  the  Year  of  our  Lord  One  Thou- 
fand  Six  Hundred  and  Eighty  Nine,  formerly  ufed  to  be  taken,  Be  it 
further  Ena&cd  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  all  fucb  Perfbn  or 
Perfbns  that  remain  endebted  for  any  Duty  or  Cuftom  arifing  and  due 
in  the  Moneth  of  June  aforefaid,  which  was  in  the  Year  of  our  Lord 
1 689.  are  hereby  required  to  make  their  feveral  and  refpefrivePayments 
unto  their  Majefties  Collector  and  Receiver  General,  for  the  intent 
aforefaid.  Arid  their  Majefties  Collector  &  Receiver  General  is  hereby 
Authorised  and  Impowered  to  receive  the  fame,  and  in  default  thereof, 
to  fuc  for  and  recover  the  fame,  in  fuch  manner  and  form  as  is  ufual  and' 
practicable  in  recovery  of  all  juft  Debts  due  to  the  King. 

And  foraftnuch  as  the  Representatives  now  met  in  General  AfTembly 
arelikewife  ftnfible  of  thefignal  fervicedone  and  acted  by  Major  Rkb. 
Ingotdsby  and  Cap.  William  Kjii,  before  your  Excellency's  arrival, 
therefore  pray  that  it  may  be  further  Enac\ed  by  the  Authority  aforefaid 
That  there  be  paid  out  of  the  Money  given  to  your  Excellency,  by 
virtue  of  this  Ad,  unto  Major  Richard  Ingoldsby  the  Sum  ot  one  Hundred 
Pounds,  and  to  Capt.  William  Kjdd  the  Sum  of  one  Hundred  and  Fifty 
Pounds,  as  a  fiutable  Reward  and  Acknow  ledgement  for  the  good 
Services  done  by  them  before  your  Excellency's  arrival  here. 


An  AB  for  the  raifingof  two  ThoufandTounds  for 
faying  and  defraying  the  Incidental  Charges,  accor- 
ding to  ejidblishment  of  one  hundred  Fu^Ueers,  with 
their  proper  Officers,  for  one  who  e  Tear. 

FOr  the  fecuring  the  Fronteers  of  this  Province  in  the  County  of 
Albany,  it  is  thought  convenient,  that  his  Excellency,  the  Captain 
General  do  raife  one  Company  to  confiftof  one  hundred  Fuzileers,  with 
their  proper  Officers,  which  fhall  remain  in  the  faid  County,  for  the 
defence  thereof,  one  whole  Year,  to  commence  on  the  28th  day  of 

Miireh% 


C  28  3 

March  now  laft  paft,  Be  it  therefore  Ena&ed  by  the  Qovewow  and 
Council,  and  Reprcfentatives  convened  in  General  AfTembly,  And  it  is 
hereby  Ena&ed  by  the  Authority  of  the  fame,  That  a  Levy  of  two 
Thoufand  Pounds  currant  Money  of  this  Province,  he  Jaid,  afleflcd, 
railed  and  levyed  upon  all  and  every  of  the  Inhabitants,  Refidenrs  and 
Free-holders  of  and  in  this  Province,  for  the  paying  and  defraying  the 
incidental  Charges  of  thefaid  Company  of  Fuzileers,  and  their  Officers 
for  one  whole  Year,  as  aforefaid,  and  for  no  other  ufe,  intent  or  pur- 
pofe  whatfbever.   To  be  laid,  afTeffed,  raifed,  levied  and  paid  unto 
their  Majefties  Collector  and  Receiver  General  for  the  time  being,  at 
their  Majefties  Cuftom-Houfc  in  the  City  of  New-Tork,  at  the  times 
hereafter  mentioned,  That  is  to  fay,  one -half  or  Moyetvof  the  faid 
two  Thoufand  Pounds  at  or  before  the  2  5th  of  fuly  now  next  enfumg, 
and  the  other  moyety  or  half  part  at  or  before  the  25th  day  of  March, 
which  fhall  be  in  the  Year  of  our  Lord  t<5Q2.  according  to  the  Rates 
and  Proportions  following,  that  is  to  fay 
For  the  City  and  County  of  Neto-Torl\  Four  Hundred  Pounds. 
For  the  City  and  County  oiAlUny  One  Hundred  and  Eighty  Pounds. 
For  the  County  of  Wejtchefler,  one  hundred  and  forty  Pounds, 
For  theGsHinty  of  Richmond  quiz  hundred  and  twenty  Pounds, 
For  the  County  of  VlHtr  and  Dutches  County  two  hundred  and  fifty 
Pounds. 

For  the  County  of  Suffolk,  three  hundred  and  fifty  Pounds. 
For  Kings  County,  two  hundred  and  fixty  Pounds. 
For  gueens  County >  two  hundred  and  fixty  Pounds. 
For  the  County  of  Orange,  fifteen  Pounds. 
For  Dukes  County,  twenty  five  Pounds. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  tlie  Authority  aforefaid,  Thar  for  the 
better  afTeifing,  railing  and  rai&ng  the  Sum  of  two  rhouland  Pounds 
aforefaid,  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen  within  the  City  of  New-Tork,  the 
Mayor  and  Aldermen  of  the  City  of  Albany*  with  the  Juftices  of  the 
Peace  for  the  City  and  County  of  Albany  for  the  time  being ;  and  the 
Juftices  of  the  Peace  for  the  t«me  being,  for  the  feveral  refpe&ive 
Counties  aforefaid,  for  the  feveral  Counties  refpeftively  for  which  they 
Ihall  be  Juftices  of  the  IJeace,  do  forth- with,  upon  the  Publication 
hereof,  afTemble  and  meet  togetlier  at  the  Court- Houfes,  for  the  feveral 
refpe&ive  Cities  and  Counties,  or  fuch  other  place  or  places  as  they 
fhall  agree  upon  amongft  themfelves,  and  fhall  there  Older,  that  the 
AflefTors  and  Collectors  for  the  feveral  refpective  Cities,  Towns,  Man* 
norsand  Liberties  within  their  feveral  Jurifdi£Uons,  for  the  AfTeffmg, 
Collecting  and  receiving  of  the  publick  Rates,  for  the  defraying  the 
pubick  and  necefTary  Charge  of  each  refpettive  City  and  County  afore- 
faid, be  the  AftefTors  and  Col&e&ors,  for  the  affefling,  collecting  aad 
receiving  the  Sum  or  Sums  of  Money  herein  before  mentioned,  accor- 
ding to  the  Proportions  before  exprc (Ted,  as  to  the  faid  Mayor,  Alder- 
menand  Juftices  fluty  feeqa  mesr  md  rcafonable. 


DC 


C  29  3 


Be  it  further  Ena&cd  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  the  (aid 
Mayor,  Aldermen,  and  Juftices  of  the  Peace  tor  the  refpective  Citie^ 
Counties,  Mannorsand  Jurifdictions,  have,  and  fha.ll  have  Power  and 
Authority,  by  virtue  of  this  Aft,  each  of  them  by  himfelf,  to  admi* 
nifter  an  Oath  to  the  faid  Affeffors,  Well,  truly,  equally,  and  actor  ding  to 
thtir  heft  Vndtr ft  finding)  to  affefs  and  rat*  the  Inhabitants,  Refidents  and 
Frc'-boldt  of  the  reflective  places  for  the  which  they  {ball  be  chofn  djfejfors. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  if  any 
Per  Ion  or  Perfons  who  fhall  be  chofen  Afleffors  or  Collectors,  fhall 
deny,  neglect  or  refufe  to*cake  Oath,  as  aforefaid,  or  Ihall  in  any 
ways  deny,  neglett,  or  refufe  to  make  fuch  Affefment  as  by  this  Act  is 
required,  or  fhall  deny,  neglect  or  refufe  to  colled  any  Sum  or  Sums 
of  Money,  in  form  before  mentioned  aflefTed,  that  tnen  and  in  fuch 
cafe  it  fhall  and  may  be  lawful  for  any  two  of  their  Majeftks  Juftices 
of  the  Peace,  of  the  County  where  fiich  Offenders  fhali  happen  to 
dwell  or  reftde,  and  who  by  virtue  of  this  Act  are  required  and  im- 
powered  to  do  the  fame,  by  Warrant  under  their  Hands  and  Seals  to 
commit  fuch  AfTefTor  or  Afleffors,  Collector  or  Collectors,  lo  denying, 
refufing  or  neglecting,  to  the  common  Goal,  there  to  remain  without 
Bail  or  Mainprise,  till  he  or  they  fhall  make  Fine  andRanfom  to  their 
Majefties,  for  fuch  Contempt  as  above-faid. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  if  any 
Perfon  or  Perfons,  of  what  Degree  or  Quafity  foever  he  or  they  be  of, 
within  this  Province,  who  fhall  be  affeffed  or  rated  any  Sum  or  Sums 
of  Money,  by  virtue  of  this  Act  to  be  raifed  or  levied,  fhall  deny, 
refufe  or  delay  to  pay  and  fatisfie  the  fame,  That  then  it  fhall  and  may 
be  lawful  for  any  fuch  Collector,  by  virtue  of  a  Warrant  under  the  haai 
andfealof  any  jaftice  of  the  Peace  for  the  City  and  <3ounry  where 
fuch  Offenders  fhall  dwell  or  refide,  who,  by  virtue  of  this  Act  are 
required  and  authorized  to  grant  aud  ifTue  forth  fuch  Warrants,  to  levy 
the  fame  by  diftrefs  and  fale  of  fuch  Perfon  or  i  erfons  Goods  and 
Chattels,  returning  the  over-plus  of  fuch  Goods  and  Charrlesto  the 
owners,  the  fum  affefTed,  and  Charges  of  Diftrefs  and  Sale  being  firft 
deducted,  if  any  fuch  overplus  /hall  happen  to  be. 

And  alfb,  Be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  ik 
any  Mayor,  Alderman  or  Juftice  of  the  Peace  within  this  Province, 
whoare  hereby  required,  tmpowered  and  authorifed  to  take  effectual 
earc  that  this  Act,  and  every  Article  and  Clatrfe  therein  be  truly 
executed,  according  to  the  true  and  genuine  fence  and  intent  thereof, 
fhall  deny,  refufe,  neglea:  or  delay  to  do,  perform,  fullfiU  and  execute 
all  and  every,  or  any  the  Duties,  Powers  and  Authority  by  this  Act 
required  and  impowered  by  him  or  them  to  be  done,  performed, 
fullfilled  and  executed,  and  (hall  thereof  be  lawfully  convifted  before 
any  of  .their  Mdjeftics  Courts  of  Record  within  this  Province,  he  or 

H  they 


r  ?©  3 

theyfhall  fufTer  fuch  Pain,  by  Fine,  Tmprifonment,  as  by  thedifere- 
tion  of  the  Juftices  of  the  faid  Courts  (hall  be  adjudged. 

And  be  it  further  Ena^ed  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  if  any 
Action,  Bill,  Plaint  or  Information  fhall  be  brought,  moved  or  pre- 
fented  at  any  time  hereefter  againrt  any  perfon  or  perfons,  for  any 
matter,  caufe  or  thing  done  or  atted  in  purfuance  or  execution  ol  this 
ACt,  fuch  perfon  or  perfons  fb  fued  or  preiented  in  any  Court  whatfb* 
ever,  fhall  and  may  plead  the  general  IlTue,  Not  Guilty,  and  upon  any 
IfTue  joyncd,  may  give  this  Aft  and  the  fpccial  matter  in  Evidence  ; 
and  if  the  Plantift  or  Profecutor  fhall  be  non-fuited,  or  forbear  further 
Profecution,  orfuffer  Dilcontinuance,  or  VerdiA  to  pafsagainft  him, 
the  Defendant  axd  Defendors  fhall  recover  their  Trible  Cofts,  for  which 
tkey  fhall  have  the  like  Liberty  as  in  any  cafe  where  Cofts  by  Law  arc 
given  to  the  Defendant.  Provided  alwayes,  That  no  Mayor,  Alder- 
men or  Juftices  of  the  Peace  fhall  be  troubled,  fued,  profecuted  or 
moleftedfor  any  Omifllon,  Offence  or  Negleft,  by  virtue  of  this  Ad, 
but  within  the  (pace  of  one  year  after  fdeh  omiflion,  offence  or  negleft, 
and  not  at  any  time  hereafter,  any  thing  herein  contained  to  the  con- 
trary in  any  v/ife  notwithftanding. 


An  AB  to  eafe  People  that  are  fcrufulous  in 

Swearing. 

COrafmuch  as  there  are  fundry  Perfons  within  this  Province  and  De" 
*  pendencies,  out  of  a  tender  Confcience  rcfufe  to  giye  their  Evidence 
°n  Oathinany  matter  or  thing  depending  in  any  of  theCourts  within 
™efame,  Be  it  therefore  Enatted  by  the  Governour  and  Council,  and 
Reprefentatives  now  met  in  General  AfTembly,  and  by  the  Authority 
°»  the  fame,  That  in  fuch  cafe  the  perfon  or  perfons  fo  refufmg  the 
lame,  fhall  give  in  or  deliver  their  Evidence  or  Teftimony  in  manner  & 
form  following,  that  is  to  fay,    /  A.  &  do  (olemnly  fromife,  *$  in  the 

5refence  of  God,  to  (peak  the  Truth,  the  whele  Truth,  and  nothing  but  the 
"ruth  to  the  matter  or  thing  in  queflion. 

And  be  it  further  Enafted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  rf  any 
fuch  perfon  or  perfons,  fo  refufing  as  aforefaid,  fhall  he  fummoned  to 
ferve  upon  any  Jury  in  any  Court  within  this  Province,  then  fucrt 
perfon  or  perfons  fhall  make  the  Engagement  following,  that  is  to  fay, 
/  A.  B.  do  folemnly  promt fe,  as  in  the  prefence  of  God,  that  i  wilt  well  and 
trnly  try  tht  Ijfue  letneen  C.  D  PUnttff,  and  H.I.  Defendant,  accordmg 
/,  Evidence.  And  tn  cafe  any  fuch  perfon  or  perfons  fo  Called  to  £Vl- 
dence,  and  ro  ferve  upon  any  Jury,  and  declaring  as  aforefaid.  fhail 
after  wards  be  conviftcd  of  willtull  Falfhocd,  thatthenand  in  fuch  cafe 
fuch  perfon ^or  perfons  fhall  undergo  the  fame  punifhrr.ent  as  in  cafe  of 
willhill  Penury  is  appointed  and  provided. 

/n 


yffl  -43  for '  Pardoning  fuch  as  have  been  She  in 

the  date  Diforders. 

THe  Governour  and  Coiiricil,  Wet  Reprefentatives  convened  in  Ge- 
nerat  Aflembly,  'taking  into  their  feriousConfideration  the  many 
great  Troubles  and  Dilbrders  that  have  been  lately  within  this  Province, 
and  that  by  occafion  thereof,  and  btherways;  ^ many  of  their  Mijefties 
Subje&sare  fallen  into  danger  of  and  lie  open  to  great  Penalties  and 
Forfeitures.   And  withal,  confidering  the  Ignorance  of  many,  and  the 
dutiful  Affeftions  of  others  of  their  Majefties  Subjects,  out  of  an  earneft 
defire^  to  deliver  thetn  from  the  .  Penalties  and  Forfeitures  aforefaid, 
and  to  the  intent  that  their  Offences  may  nor  hereafter  be  brought  in 
Judgment,  Queftion  or  Remembrance,  to  the  leaft  endamagement  of 
them,  either  in  their  Lives,  Liberties,  Eftates  or  deputations,  but 
that  they,  having  an  entire  Confidence  in  their  Majefties,  and  perfect 
Union  among  tnemfelves,  may  be  encouraged  in  their  Duty  to  their 
Majefties  Government,  and  more  fully  and  fecurely  enjoy  the  benefit 
of  it,  It  is  therefore  nece/Tary,*  that  there  be  extended  unto  them  a 
general  and  free  Pa  don,  that  all  their  Majefties  Subjects  by  this  Clemency 
and  Indulgence  may  be  the  better  induced  henceforth  morecaFefulIy^  to 
obferve  the  Laws,  and  perform  their  Loyal  and  due  Obedience  to  toeir 
Majefties,   Be  it  therefore  Enacted  by  the  Governour  and  Councilv^n<J 
Reprefentatives  convened  in  General  Aflembly,  and  by  the  Authority 
of  the  lime,  That  all  and  every  of  the  Ctid  Subjects  inhabiting,  wft&m- 
this  Province,  their  Keirs,  Executors  and  Adminiftrators,  and  every  ojf 
them  Ibaft  be,  and  are  by  the  Authority  of  this  prefent  Aflembty 
acquitted,  pardoned,  releafed  and  dilcharged,  agamfb  their  Majefties, 
their  Heirs  and  Succeffors,  and  every  of  them,  of  and  from  all  manner; 
ofTreafbns,  Fellonies,  Miforifbnsof  Treafon,Treafonable  or  Seditious 
Words  and  Libills,  Mifprifons  of  Fellony,  Selitiousand  Unlawful 
Meetings,  and  of  all  Offences  whereby  any  perfon  may  b-  charged 
with  the  penalty  and  danger  of  Praemunire  ;  A  »d  alfo,  from  and  of 
all . Riots,  Routs,  Offences,  Contempts^  Trefpanes,  Entries,  Wrongs, 
Deceits  Mifdemeanours,  Forfeitures,  Penalties,  Pain  of  Deaths  Pains 
Corporal  and  Pains  Pecunary;  and  Generally,' of  and  from  all  other 
Things,  Caufes,  Quarrels,  Suifs,  Judgments  and  Executions,  in  this 
prefent  Ad  not  hereafter  excepted,  which  may  be  or  Can  by  their  Ma- 
jefties in  any  ways,  or  by  any  means  pardoned  before  the        day  of 
March  laft  paft,  to  any  of  the  SubjeQs  aforefaid. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  this 
Pardon  fhaH  be  as  good  and  effectual  in  rhe  Law  to  every  of  their  Ma- 
jtftjes  faidS  .bfefls,  in,  for  and  againft  all  things  which  be  not  here- 
after in  this  prefent  Act  excepted,  as  the  fame  Pardon  fhould  have  been, 

if 


[    ?2  1 

if  all  Offences,  Contempts,  Forfeitures,  Caufes,  Matters  ,  •  Suits , 
Quarrels,  Judgments,  Executions,  Penalties,  and  all  other  things  not 
hereafter  in  this  prefent  Aft  excepted,  had  been  particularly,  tmgtrfarly, 
fpecially  and  plainly  named,  rehearfed,  and  ipecified,  and  alfo  pardon- 
ed by  exprefs  words  and  names,  in  their  kinds,  natures  and  qualities, 
by  words  and  terms  thereunto  requifit  to  have  been  put  in  and  expreffed 
in  this  prefent  Act  of  Pardon.  That  their  faid  Subjects,  or  any  of 
them,  their  Heirs,  Executors  and  Adminiftrators,  or  any  of  them,  be 
not,  or  fhall  be  fued,  vexed,  or  unquietcd  in  their  Bodies,  Goods, 
Chattels,  Lands  or  Tenements,  for  any  manner  of  Matter,  Came, 
Contempt,  Mifdemeanour,  Forfeiture,  Trefpafc,  Oifence,  or  any 
other  thing  differed,  done,  committed  or  omitted,  before  the  igtl. 
day  of  Hutch ,  againft  the;r  Mayflies,  their  Crown;  Dignity, 
Prerogative,  or  the  Laws  or  Statures  of  their  Majefties  Realm  of 
EngUnd,  and  this  Province,  but  ouly  for  fuch  Matters,  Caufes  and 
Offences  as  be  rehearfed,  mentioned,  or  in  fome  ways  touched  in  the 
Exceptions  of  this  prefent  Act  excepted,  and  for  none  other,  any 
Stature,  Law,  Cuftom  or  Ufage  heretofore  had,  made  or  ufed,  to  the 
contrary  in  any  ways  notwkhftanding. 


And  be  it  fartker  Enacted,  That  allj  and  every  their  Majefties 
Subjects  may  by  him  or  themfelves,  or  by  his  or  their  Attorney  or 
Attorneys,  according  to  the  Laws  of  Eng  /Wand  this  Province,  plead 
and  mimfter  this  prefent  Act  of  Pardon,  for  his  or  their  drfcharge  of 
or  for  any  thing  that  is  by  virtue  of  this  Act  pardoned,  diifcharged, 
given  or  granted,  without  any  Fee,  or  other  thing  paying  to  any 
perfonor  pcrfons,  for  writing  or  entringof  the  Judgments  or  other 
Caiife  concerning  fuch  Plea,  Writing  or  Entry,  but  only  three  Shillings 
to  be  paid  to  the  Officer  or  Clark  that  fhall  enter  fuch  Pfea,  Matters 
for  Judgment, or  the  party's Difcharge  in  that  behalf,  any  Law,  Cuftom 
or  Ufage  to  the  contrary  in  any  wiie  notwithstanding. 


And  be  it  further  Ena&ed  by  the  Authority  aforefaid',  That  this 
Pardon  by  the  general  Words,  Claufes  and  ^Sentences  before  rehearfed, 
(hall  be  reputed,  deemed  and  adjudged,  expounded,  allowed  and  taJken 
tr  al  manner  of  Courts  of  their  Majefties,  raoft  beneficial  and  available 
to  all  and  lingular  the  faid  Subjects,  and  to  every  of  them  in  all  things, 
not  in  this  prefent  Act  excepted,  without  any  ambiguity,  queftions, 
or  other  delay  whatfbever,  to  be  made,  pleaded,  objected  or  alledged 
by  their  Majefties,  their  Heirs  or  Succeflors,  or  their  or  any  of  their 
General  Attorney  or  Attorneys,  or  by  any  perlbn  or  perfons  for  their 
Majefties,  or  any  of  their  Heirs  and  Succelfors. 

Excepted,  and  alwayos  for-prized  out  of  this  general  Pardon  all 
and  every  the  Perfons  hereafter  named  and  expreffed. 

"3*g& 


"Jjeob  ttyjkr, 

fttob  MUihuw, 

Gharrgrdas  Skekmstfy 

Jkabam  Gmt&tKer, 

&rs&emBrA$ctf 

Thorn*  Williams f 

Minsrdt  Ceerttn% 

Jobimus  Wermtltfatn,  already 

attainted   «f  Treafea  and 

Murder. 
NUboUs  Btmk, 
Gerret  Daykin, 
Hearick  f*nfnt 
Jeh»  Cm > 

William  Lmrdm  of  &f'J*rfey, 
Cortttlhu  Plevier, 
WiiitmCburchUly 
7»fi  Stollt 


i  a 

Samuell  Stunts , 
Jacd  Maurjtz, 

M&bae!  Hiufsfff  - 

RifbArd  Peutm,  ef  tfce  County 

of  ffefichefitr* 
*}oftph  Smiths 
$ohn  Baity, 
Review  Swrtwnd, 
Antfony  Swartmed, 
Jehaaoes  Priveft, 
f$ctb  Mnfltirfy 
Benjamin  Blagg, 
fiachem  Staatts, 

Anil 
Riebard  Pretty* 


The  End  of  the  Firft  Seffions, 


I 


Several 


C  ?4  1 


Several  A&s  made  by  the  General 

Affembly  in  their  Second  Seflions,  begun  the 
$tb.  of  September,  Annoq\  Domini  1691.  and 
in  the  third  Year  of  Their  Aufpicious  Majefties, 
King  William  and  Queen  Mary. 


An  AB  for  the  Regulating  Damages  done  in  the  time 
of  the  late  Dif orders;  and  for  the  uniting  the  Minds 
of  their  Majt flies  Subjetls  within  this  Province, 
and  for  calling  home  fuch  of  their  Majeflies  Subje&s 
that  have  lately  abfented  themfelves  from  tbeir 
Habitations  and  the  ufual places  of  their  Abode. 

FOrafmuch  as  many  of  their   Majefties  Subje&s  have  lately 
abfented  themfelves  from  the  ufual  places  of  rhcir  Abode  and 
others,  through  cauflds  fears,  have  alfo  with  drawn  themfelves 
out  of  this  Province,  by  which  means  Trade  isleffened,  the  Strength 
of  theProvince  is  weakened,  and  their  Families  injured     And  whereas 
it  is  highly  neeeiTary  at  this  Juncture,  being  a  timeof  War  and  great 
danger,  that  the  Minds  of  the  Subje£h  in  this  Province  fhould  be 
heartily  united.    And  forafmuch  as  in  the  time  of  the  late  Dilbrders, 
when  J*col>  Ltyjler,  lately  attainted  and  executed,  had  ufurpeda  Power, 
and  pretended  a  Government  over  their  Majefties  Subje&s  within  this 
Province,  many  Hurts,  Injuries,  Wrongs  and  Damages  were  done 
unto  their  Majefties  good  and  faithful  Subiefb  by  thofe  that  were  a/d- 
ing and  affifting  unto  him  in  his  ufurped  Power  and  Government,  as 
aforctaid.    And  it  being  likewife  neceffary,  that  all  their  Majefties 
Subjects,  asaforefaid,  fhould  have  fome  juft  and  reafonable  Satisfaction 
from  thole  that  have  injured  them;  and  that  it  is  apparent  that  many 
through  Ignorance  and  Fear,  have  been  led  afide  to  do  the  Hurts  and 
Harmsi  as  aforefaid,  and  if  fuch  be  profecured  by  thecommon  Proce/s 
of  the  Law,  may  tend  to  the  utter  Ruin  of  them  and  their  Families, 
and  no  wayes  recompence  the  Injuries  done,  and  thofe  that  are  mo/1: 
able  to  latisfie  the  Damages,  and  have  been  moft  active  in  profecufmg 
the  lame,  elcape  free.    And  forafmuch  asuhe,  ..gcBsral  Peace  and 
Security  of  their  Alajefties  Government  over  this  Province,  cannor  be 

Firmer 


hrrucr  diibL'fcaT,  than  that  all  chofe  tha,t  have  foabfcnted  rficmlcivcs 
reairaagsia  to  their  refpective  Abodes  and  Habitations,  and  that  al 
chcyrgo»5  Sabjs&s  heartily  unite  in  the  common  Defence  of  the  tame 
agauaft  &U.  Ecemies  what foever.  And  for  the  effectual  doing  theieof 
-iod tfeit a  juft  and  equitable  Satisfaction  may  be  made  to  the  Pe  Ion 
isiured,  by  thole  that  have  been  active,  as  aforefaid,  in  fuch  equal  and 
luft  Proportions,  asthe  Circuitances  of  the  Fad  will  admit. 

Be  it  therefore  Enacted  by  the  Commander  in  chief  and  Council 
and  the  Reprefentatives  convened  in  General  AfTembly,  and  by  the 
Authority  of  the  fame,  That  in  each  of  the  refpective  Cities  and 
Counties  hereafter  named  and  cxpretTed,  there  fhall  be  conftituted  and 
commiflioaated,  under  their  Majefties  Seal  of  this  Province,  five 
Coramiflioners,  who  are  hereby  impowered  and  authorized,  at  fueh 
certaip  dayes  and  places  as  they  frail  conveniently  appoint,  to  meet 
and  affemble  togetner,  and  at  fuch  their  Aflemblies  and  Meetings  to 
reeeive  in  Writing  the  Claims  and  Demands  of  fuch  of  their  Majefties 
Subjects  that  have  been  hurt,  or  have  received  Damage  in  their  Eftates 
by  the  force  or  violence  of  any  Perfbn  or  Perfons  imployed,  or  pretend- 
ed  to  be  imployed  by  Jsetf  Leyfer,  lately  attainted  and  executed,  or 
aiy  under,  or  aflbciated  with  nlm :  And  after  they  have  received  fuch 
Claims  and  Demands,  as  aforefaid,  they  are  then  to  caufe  theConftable 
of  the  refpective  Towns,  where  the  Perfbns  complained  againft  do 
refide,  or  any  other  Perfon  the  laid  Commiflioners  fhall  think  fit  to 
appoint,  to  tummon  the  parties  complained  againft,  to  make  their 
Eeifonal  Appearance  before  them  at  a  certain  day,  of  which  the  Com- 
plainants fhall  have .  flotiee,  and  be  likewife  prefent ;  and  upon  their 
appearance  ftrictly  to  examine,  and  to  enquire  into  the  matter  of  Faft 
and  Damage  alleoged ;  and  upon  denyal  of  the  Fa&,  to  fummon  and 
call  before  them  fuch  Perfon  or  Perfons,  that  know  any  thing  of  the 
Fact  or  Damage  allcdged,  or  cm  give  Evidence  thereof;  and  the  faid 
Commiffioners  are  hereby  impowered  and  authorized  to  adminifter  an 
Oath  or  Oathcs  unto  fuch  perfon  or  perfons  that  fhall  be  fb  fummoned 
before  them,  that  the  Truth  may  be  the  better  difcovereJ.  And 
upon  their  hearing  and  examining  of  the  Parties,  and  enquiring  into 
the  matters  of  Fact  and  Damage,  as  aforefaid,  they  are  hereby  further 
impowered  and  authorized  to  alTefs  the  Damage  in  Truth  and  Equity, 
as  it  fhall  appear  uato  them,  and  not  other*  ife ;  and  fuch  tfeiTments 
of  the  Damages  fhall  betaxedon  the  OFendors  in  fuch  juft  and  equal 
Proportions,  as  to  them  fhall  feem  meet,  in  equity  and  good  Con- 
fciencc    andafrer  fuch  their  AfTefcienr  and  Taxation,  as  aforefaid, 
fhall  order  and  decree  thcOfTcnrfors  or  Defendants  to  pay  thefum  fb 
afteffedand  taxed,  in  manner  aforefaid,  unto  the  Complainants,  or 
give  fufheient  tecuriry  that  they  fhall  pay  the  fame  at  a  reafonable 
day  after  this  their  Decree  and  Determination.    All  which  Affefmenrs, 
Taxations,  Decrees  and  Determinations  done  and  made,  in  manner 
and  form,  as  aforefaid,  fhall  be  good  and  effectual  in  the  Law,  and  a 
good  and  fuftkient  Difcharge  unto  the  Defenders  forever,  according  to 

die 


the  true  intent  and  meaning  hereof,  any thing  ..contaiaed  herein,  orio 
any  other  Law  to  the  contrary  hereof,  in  any  wife  notwithftancbng, 

Alwayes  provided,  and  be  it  further  Ena&ed  by  the  Authority 
aforefaid,  That  all  Perfbns  that  have  been  harmed,  injured  and  damajged 
in  manner  aforefaid,  arfd  are  at  the  publication  hereof 'within  this 
Province,  fhall  bring  in  their  Claims  and  Demands  into  fuch  place  or 
places,  as  fhall  be  appointed  by  the  Gommtnloners  in  the  refpedive 
Cities  and  Counties  hereafter  named,  within  forty  daye§,  other  wife 
they  fhall  forever  be  barred  their  Claim/  And  .  upon  any  future 
Peofecution,  the  Defendants  may  plead  the*  general  Iff ue,  and  give 
this  Ad  and  the  fpecial  matter  in  Eyjdencev^d  if  the  PlantifT  fhall 
fcecome  Non-fuit,  or  forbear  further  Prolecutiqn,  or  fuffer  Difcon- 
tinuance,  or  if  VerdiQ:  pafs  againfVJ  him,  the  fajid  Defendant  fhall 
recover  his  double  Cofts,  for  wftjeii  he  fhall  have  the  like  remedy  as 
in  cafe  where  Cofts  by  Law  are  given  to"  Defendants* 

And  all  Perfbn  or  Perfons  that  are  out  of  the  Province  at  the 
Publication  hereof,  and  have  been  wronged  or  injured  iri  manner 
aforefaid,  fhall  within  one  Tear  after  the  Publication  hereof,  give  in 
t,heir  Claim  and  Demand,  as  aforefaid,  otherwife  (hail  forever  be' 
barred  their  Claims,  and  be  under  the  Reftri&ion  of  this  Law  to  all 
intents  and  purpofes,  as  aforefaid. 

Alwayes  provided,  and  be  it  further  Ena&ed  by  the  Authority 
aforefaid,  That  if  any  Perfon  or  Perfons  that  have  offended  in 
manner  aforefaid,  and  have  been' perfonally  fummoned,  or  had  a 
Summons  left  in  Writing  at  their  Habitations,  or  ufual  places  of  theifc 
Abode,  and  do  not  appear  to  make  their  Defence,  or  ihow,icme 
lawful  caufe  why  they  could  not  appear,  fhall  be  deemed  and  cfreemeti 
as  Defaulters,  and  Sentence  and  Decree  fhall  pafs  upon  them  on  default 
accordingly,  and  Executions  UTue  thereupon,  as  atbrcfaid.' 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  the 
Commiflioners  hereafter  named,  for  the  putting  this  A&  in  Execution, 
fhall  be  commilfionated  under  the  Seal  of  this  Province.  And  there  is 
hereby  nominated,  conftituted  and  appointed  for  the  Execution  of  this 
Aft,  and  the  Claufes  therein  contained, 

For  the  City  and  County  of  New-Tork,  Capt.  Jacolusvan  CturtUnL 
Peter  Jacob  fts  Marias,  Law  awe  Ready  Thomas  Cedtringtw,  and  Aiolfb 
Pbtllips,  Efqrs.  or  any  three  of  them,  whereof  ^f*c*b  van  Couttland  is 

to  be  one.  w  ^ 

For  the  City  and  County  of  Albany,  Peter  Schuyler,  MartmGerretf, 

Albertus  Rykman,  Kenrick  Ranker,  and  Genet  Rerefon,  Efqrs.  or  any 

three  of  them,  whereof  Feter  Schuyler  is  to  be  one.  * 

For  the  County  of  Vl/ler.  Th§mas  Gart$n,  Tynetjck,  William  Legg, 

Wtlltam  Hawes,  WeffelTynbr&ok,  Efqrs.  or  any  three  of  them,  whereof 

Thomas  Garten  is  to  be  one. 

For 


For  the  County  of  Richmond,  Blias  Duxberry,  Dennis  Tent  fon,  Andrew 
Cannon,  Abraham  Lackmxn,  John  Shadmeel^  Efqrs*  or  any  Ch  eCOf  them, 
whereof  EUas  Duxberty  is  to  be  one. 

For  the  County  of  WeflcheHer^John  Palmer,  John  Hunt,  $ohn  Drake, 
fofephTheal,  fobnathan  Hart,  ERjrs.  or  any  three  of  them,  whereof 
John  Palmer  is  to  be  one. 

For  Kjngs  County ,  J*?**  Cortilew,  John  Tennifon,  Nicholas  Stillwell, 
Lucas  Stevinfon,  fofeph  Hegmen,  Efqrs.  or  any  three  of  them,  whereof 
Jaq/tes  Cortiltw  to  be  one, 

And  for  Owens  County,  Join  Robtnfon9  Nathaniel  Pier/on,  James 
Clements,  William  Mallet,  jun.  Johnathan  Smith,  Efqrs.  Or  any  three 
of  them,  whereof  John  Robin fon  is  to  be  one. 

Provided  alwayes,  That  in  cafe  of  Death,  it  (ball  be  in  the  Power  of 
the  Commander  in  Chief  and  Council,  to  nominate  and  appoint  other 
Commiflioners,  inftead  of  the  Commiflionws  deeeafed,  at  their  owa 
difcretion.  Which  laid  Commiflioners,  (bag  aforofaid  nominated  and 
appointed,  or  in  cafe  of  Death  to  be  nominated  and  appointed,  fhall  ia 
the  refpeftive  Cities  and  Counties  rcfpe&ively,  meet  together,  and 
perform  the  feveral  Powers,  Authorities  and  Dkeftions,  in  and  by  ths 
kid  Act  given  and  appointed.  For  the  true  and  faithful  Iisecutioffi 
thereof,  they  (hall  at  the,  time  they  receive  their  Commiflfion,  take  tfcir 
following  Oath,  Viz.^ 

YO  V  jbaLl  Swear,  That  you  to  your  Cunning  Wit  and  Power,  fbatl 
truly  and  indifferently  execute  the  Powers  and  Authorities  given  you 
by  this  Commifjion  and  J&  of  Ajfembly,  without  any  Favour,  Affectum, 
Corruption,  Dread  or  Malice  to  be  born  to  any  manner  of  Per  fon  or  Perfons* 
Aud  as  the  cafe  /ball  require,  ye  JhaO  confent  and  endeavour  your  felf,  for 
your  fart,  to  the  heft  of  your  kh^wledg^  to  the  ajft/Jing  and  taxing  tht 
Damage  of fuch  Claims  and  Suits,  that  fhall  be  brought 'before  wv,  according 
to  Truth,  Equity,  and  the  Evidence  given  you,  and  in  fuch  due  and  eaual 
Proportions,  as  in  good  Confcience  (ball  feem,  meet  unto  you  .  and  the  fame 
Powers  and  Authorities,  to  your  Cunning,  Wit  and  Power,  caufe  to  be 
put  in  due  Execution,  without  Favour,  Dread,  Malice  or  Affetlion.  So 
help  you  Qod. 

Alwayes  provided,  and  be  it  hereby  further  Fna£red  by  t1 
Autkoriry  aforefaid,  That  in  cafe  of  Error,  any  Perfon  or  Perfons  fha 
have  Liberty  to  make  his  or  their  Appeal  unto  the  Governour  and 
Council.  Provided,  the  Value  appealed  for  exceed  the  fum  of  one 
hundred  Pounds  and  that  Security  be  firft  given  by  the  Appellant, 
to  aiXwer  fuch  Charges  as  fhall  be  awarded,  in  cafe  the  firft  Sentence 
or  Decree  be  affirmed. 

And  in  regard  Tome  Perfons  have  commenced  and  profecuted,  and 
threaten  to  commence  and  prolecure  Actions  and  Suits  agatnft  fuch 
of  their  Majefties  Subjects,  for  and  by  reafon  of  their"  acting  and 

K  doing, 


[  *8  1 

ttoiug,  as  aforefaid ;  Therefore  for  the  preventing  the  Trouble  and 
Charges  which  the  laid  Subjects  might  be  put  to,  by  means  of  fuch  Suits, 
jbe  it  Therefore  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  all  Perfonal 
Anions,  Suits,  Moleftations,  Profecutions  whatfbever,  and  Judgments 
and  Executions  hzA  thereupon,  if  any  be,  for  or  by  reafon  of  any  of 
the  Premifes,  are,  and  be  hereby  difcharged  and  made  void.  And  if 
any  Action  or  Suit,  dtclaredjOr  intended  to  be  difcharged,  fhall  be  com- 
menced or  profecuted  in  any  other  Court,  or  after  any  other  manner, 
than  what  is  declared  and  appointed  by  this  Aft,  then  every  Perfon  fo 
lued,  may  plead  the  general  liTue,  and  give  this  Aft,  and  the  fpecial 
matter  in  Evindence.  And  if  the  PlantifT  fhall  become  Non-fuit,  or 
forbear  further  Profecution,  or  fuffer  Difcontinuance,  or  if  a  Verdict 
pafs  againft  him,  the  faid  Defendant  fhall  recover  his  double  Cofts,  for 
which  lie  fhall  have  the  like  Remedy  as  in  cafe  where  Cofts  by  Law  are 
given  to  Defendants. 

And  fince  it  is  the  general  Peace  of  this  Government,  and  the  good, 
eafe  and  benefit  of  all  their  Majefties  Subjects  inhabiting  within  the 
lame,  that  is  only  intended  by  this  Act,  Be  it  therefore  Enacted  by  the 
Authority  aforefaid,  That  all  Judges  and  Jufticos  of  their  Majefties 
Courts  or  Records,  and  all  Mayors  and  Aldermen  of  the  refpectivc 
Cities,  and  all  Sheriffs,  darks,  and  other  Orhcers  within  this  Province, 
do  take  notice  of  the  faid  A6t,and  fee  the  fame  truly  executed,  according 
to  the  Powers,  Authorities  and  Claufes  therein  contained,  anything 
contained  herein,  or  in  any  other  Law  to  the  contrary  hereof  in  any 
wayes  notvvithftanding. 

And  that  all  their  Majeftes  Subjects  concerned  in  the  Premifes,  and 
who  for  thefe  caufes  have  abfented  themfelves  from  the  ufual  places  of 
their  Abode,  or  have  with -drawn  themfelves  out  of  this  Province, 
may  have  all  their  cauflefs  fears  removed,  and  fully  enjoy  all  the 
Benefits,  Priviledges  and  Advantages  intended  them  by  this  Act,  Be 
it  therefore  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  all  and 
every  of  fuch  Perfons  concerned  in  the  Premiles,  as  aforefaid,  do 
within  forty  days  after  the  Publication  hereof,  return  and  repair  to 
their  refpective  Habitations  or  places  of  their  Abode  within  this 
Province,  and  there  ufe,  exercife  and  follow  their  refpective  Occupa- 
tions, as  accuftomed,  where  they  fhall  remain  without  any  other  let  or 
moleftation  than  what  is  required  by  this  Act,  and  freely  poflefs  and 
enjoy  all  their  Benefits  and  protections  of  their  Majeftits  Laws  of 
England  and  this  Province. 

Alwayes  provided,  and  be  it  further  Enabled  by  the  Authority 
aforefaid,  That  if  any  Perfbn  or  Perfons  concerned  in  the  Premifes,  as 
aforefaid,  fhall  neglect  to  return  or  repair  to  their  refpective  Habita- 
tions or  places  of  their  Abode  in  this  Province,  within  the  time  limited 
and  exprciTed,  except  all  fuch  as  fhall  be  at  the  Publication  hereof, 
beyond  the  Seas.    Then  and  in  fuch  cafe  fuch  Perfbn  or  Perfons  fhall  be 

deemed 


deemed  and  cfteemed  Contetnners  of  their  Majefties  Authority  and 
Government  over  this  Province,  and  loofe  all  the  Benefe  and 
Advantages  intended  them  bythi*  A&  ,  and  all  and  every  o/  their 
rdpe&veEftatcs,  both  ReaJ  and  Perfooal,.  (hall be  liable  and  extended 
to  make  Satisfaction  to  all  fuch  Suits  or  Demands  as.  (hall  be  madcih 
due  Farm  of  the  Law  againft  thcra,  any  thing  contained  herein  to  the 
contrary  hereof  in  any  waves  notwithftanding. 


An  A3  to  divide  this  Trovince  and  Dependencies 
into  Shires  and  Counties. 

FOrafmucb  as  Miftakes  may  arife  about  the  Limits  and  Bounds  oF 
the  rcfpe&ive  Counties  within  this  Province ,  for  Prevention 
whereof,  Be  it  Ena&ed  by  the  Commander  in  Chief  and  Council, 
and  Reprefentatives,  and  by  the  Authority  of  the  feme,  That  the  {aid 
Province  be  divided  into  twelve  Counties,  asfolloweth. 

The  City  and  County  of  Ne»-Tork  to  contain  all  the  Ifland  eorfl* 
rhonly  called  Manhattans  1/land,  Mannings  Ifimd,  the  two  Barron  fflands 
and  the  three  Oyfier  1 fends,  Manhattans  Ifiand  to  be  Called  the  Citj  ef 
New-Tork,  and  tne  reft  of  the  IlUnds  the  County. 

The  Connty  of  IVeJlche/ler  to  contain  Eaft  and  Weftcbefter  Breuxes 
Land,  Fordham,  Mannor  of  Pedham,  M'nfords  IJland,  RichbMt  Neck, 
and  all  the  Land  on  the  Main  to  the  Eaft  ward  of  Manhattans  Ifland,  as 
far  as  the  Government  at  prefent  extends>  and  the  Tonkers  Land,  And 
Northwards  along  Hudfans  River  as  far  as  the  High-Land. 

The  County  ot  Vlfter  to  contain  the  Towns  of  Kingftont,  HmrUf 
and  Marble  Town,  JWu//andthe  Nov  Pe/U>  and  all  Villages,  Neigh- 
bourhoods and  Chriftian  Habitations  on  the  Weft  fide  H»dfin%% 
River,  from  the  Murderers  Creek,  near  the  Highlands,  to  the  Sawvers 
Creek. 

The  County  of  Alb  Any  to  contain  the  Mannor  of  Rtnfleerfouk,  Scfo* 
naUady,  and  all  the  Villages,  Neighbourhoods  and  Ckrirtran  Planta- 
tions on  the  Eaft  frde  of  Htdfons  River,  from  the  Roel  of  Janfw 
Creek :  And  on  the  Weft  fide,  from  the  Swyers  Creek  to  the  utmoft 
end  of  Sarraghfoga. 

The  Dutches  County  to  be,  from  the  Bounds  of  the  County  of  Wtfi- 
chefler,  on  the  South  fkfe  the  High  Lands,  along  the  Eaft  fide  of 
Htdfons  River,  as  far  as  Roel  of  jam/ens  Creek.  And  Baftward  into 
the  Woods  twenty  Miles. 

The  County  of  Orange  to  begin  from  the  Limits  and  Bound*  of 
EaiJ  and  Weft  Jtrfeyt  on  the  Weft  fide  of  Hudfons  River,  along  the 
faid  River  to  the  Murderers  Creek,  or  Bounds  o*  rhe  County  of  Vifter. 
And  Weft  ward,  into  the  ty'oodsasfar  as  Ddware  River, 

The 


C  40  3 

The  County  of  Richmond  to  contain  all  Staten  lfland,  Shooters  lfland, 
and  the  Iflandsof  Mtddovo  on  che  Weft  fide  thereof. 

Kingt  County  to  contain  the  feveral  Towns  of  BujJjric^,  Bedford, 
Bro'okline,  Flatbujh,  Flatlands,  Neuwtrutht  and  Graves -End,  with  the 
fcveral  Settlements  and  Plantations  adjacent. 

Queens  County  to  contain  the  feveral  Towns  of  Netvtown,  Jamaica, 
Flujbwg,  Hemflead,  Oyfler-Bay,  with  Horfe  Neck,  and  the  feveral  out- 
Farms,  Necks,  Settlements  and  Plantations  adjacent,  and  the  lfland 
called  the  Two  Brothers,  and  Hullets  lfland. 

The  County  of  Suffo/k  to  contain  the  feveral  Towns  of  Htntington, 
Smithfeld,  Brookhaven,  Southampton,  S  out  hold,  JZaHhampton  to  Mont  auk 
Pointy  Shelters  1/land,  IJle  of  Wtght,  Fi/bers  lfland  and  Plumb  lfland, 
with  the  feveral  Out-Farms,  Settlements  and  Plantations  adjacent. 

Dukes  County  to  contain  the  lfland  of  Mantucket,  Martins  Vineyard, 
Elizabeth  lfland,  and  No  Mans  Land. 

The  County  of  Cornwall  to  contain  Pemy  Quid,  and  all  the  Terri- 
tories in  thofe  parts,  with  the  Iflands  adjacent. 


An  Aft  for  the  raifirjg  and  paying  one  Hundred  and 
Ftfty  Men,  to  be  forthwith  raijed,  for  the  De- 
fence and  %e-inf)rcement  of  Albany  for  fix 
Moneths. 

WHereas  the  Fronteers  of  Alhany  are  in  eminent  danger  to  be 
loft,  being  daily  threatened  to  he  invaded  by  the  French,  their 
Majefties  declared  Enemies.  And  forafmuch  as  the  fafety  of  this, 
and  all  their  Majefties  Neighbouring  Plantations,  doth  only  depend 
on  having  that  place  well  fecured ;  and  for  die  etf  dual  doing  thereof, 
Application  hath  been  made  unto  the  Neighbouring  Plantations,  but 
hath  had  no  efteft ;  and  there  being  now  an  abfolute  neceflity  for 
the  Re-iniorcing  of  the  Fronteers  of  this  Province  in  the  County  of 
Albany,  as  well  for  the  fecuring  their  Majefties  neighbouring  Planta- 
tions, as  for  the  preferving  the  Indians  and  this  Province.  Be  it  there- 
fore Ena&etl  by  the  Commander  in  chief  and  Council,  and  Reprefen- 
tatives  convened  in  General  AiTembly,  and  by  the  Authority  of  the 
fame,  That  the  Commander  in  chief  do  raife  one  hundred  and  fifty 
Men,  with  their  proper  Officers,  for  the  Reinforcement  of  the  Fron- 
teers of  this  Province  in  the  County  of  Albany  aforefaid,  which  fhall 
remain  in  the  faid  County,  for  the  Defence  thereof,  fix  Moneths,  to 
commence  on  the  firft  day  of  November  next,  and  to  end  the  fir  ft  day 
of  May  then  following. 

And  for  the  paying  and  maintaining  the  faid  one  hundred  and  fifty 
men,  and  their  proper  Officers,  Beit  therefore  Enacted  by  the  Aatiority 

aforefaid, 


aforefaid,  That  a  Levy  of  fifteen  Hundred  Pounds  currant  Money  of 
this  Province,  be  laid,  affeffed,  raifed  and  levied  upon  all  and  every 
ofrhe  Inhabitants,  Refidentsand  Freeholders  of  and  in  this  Province, 
for  the  paying  and  maintaining  of  the  laid  one  hundred  and  fifty  men, 
and  their  proper  Officers,  for  fix  Months,  as  afore/aid,  and  for  no 
other  ufe,  intent  or  pur  pole  whatlbever.    To  be  laid,  afleflcd,  railed 
levyed  and  paid  to  their  Majefties  Collector  and  Receiver  General  for 
the  time  being,  at  their  Majefties  Cuftom-houle  in  the  City  of  New* 
Torky  on  the  2<jth  day  of  March  next  enfuing,  which  /hall  be  in  the 
Year  of  our  Loi  d  1 692.  according  to  the  Rates  and  Proportions  follow- 
ing, that  is  to  fay, 

For  the  City  and  County  of  NewJIork,  Three  Hundred  Pounds. 

For  the  City  and  County  of  Albany  one  hundred  and  thirty  Pounds. 

For  the  County  of  Wcfithefter,  one  hundred  and  five  Pounds. 

For  the  County  of  Richmond,  Ninety  Pounds. 

For  the  County  of  Vlfier  and  Dutchts  County,  one  hundred  anci 
eighty  feven  Pounds  ten  Shillings. 

For  the  County  of  Suffolk,  two  hundred  and  fixty  two  Pounds  ten 
Shillings. 

For  Kjngs  County,  one  hundred  ninety  five  Pounds. 
For  the  County  of  Orange,  eleven  pound  five  Shillings. 
For  Dukes  County,  eighteen  pound  fifteen  Shillings 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  for  the 
better  alfeffing,  railing  &  paying  the  fum  of  one  thouland  five  hundred 
Pounds  aforefaid,  The  Mayor  and  Aldermen  in  the  City  of  New-Tork9 
the  Mayor  and  Aldermen  within  the  City  of  Albany,  with  the  Juftices 
of  the  Peace  for  the  City  and  County  of  Albany  for  the  time  being,  and 
the  Juftices  of  the  Peace,  for  the  time  being,  for  the  feveral  refpe£tive 
Counties  aforefaid,  for  the  feveral  Counties  rcfpe&ively,  for  the  which 
they  lhall  be  Juftices  of  the  Peace,  do  within  forty  dayes  after  the  pub- 
lication hereof,  alfcmble  and  meet  together  in  the  Court  Houfcs  for  the 
feveral  refpe&ive  Cities  and  Counties,  or  fuch  other  place  or  places  as 
they  fliall  agree  upon  among  themfelves,  and  fhall  there  order  that  the 
AffelTors  and  Collectors  for  the  leveral  refpective  Cities,  Towns, 
Mannors  or  Liberties,  within  their  leveral  Jurilclictions,  for  the  alTefling, 
collecting  and  receiving  of  the  publick  Rates,  tor  the  defraying  of  the 
pub'ick  Charge  of  each  refpective  City  and  County  atorelaid,  be  the 
AflefTors  and  Collectors,  for  the  afTelfing,  collecting  or  receiving  the 
fum  or  fums/of  Money  herein  before  mentioned,  according  to  the 
Proportions  before  exprefied,  as  tothefaid  Mayors,  Aldermen  and 
Juftices  lhall  Rem  meet  and  reafonable. 

And  forafmuch  as  there  are  feveral  Mannors  and  Ju  ifdift ions  within 
the  reactive  Counties  aforefaid,  who  neglect  or  donor  cleft  annually 
or  once  every  \  ear  AfTcflbrs  or  Colletors,  whereby  the  intent  of  this 
Aft  may  be  fruftmed,  Bc.it  therefore  Ena'ied by  the  Authority  afore- 
laid,  Thatif  therefpective  Mannors& J urifdictions  within  the  leveral 

L  Counties 


Counties  aforefaid,  fhall  refufe  or  neglcS  to  elect  AflelTors  and 
Collectors,  for  affeffingof  their  refpe&ive  Manners  or  JurifHi&ions, 
and  for  the  collecting  the  fame,  according  to  the  intent  and  direction 
of  this  AS,  then  and  in  fuch  Cafe  the  Tuft  ices  of  the  Peace  in  the 
Counties  where  fuch  Mannors  or  Jurisdictions  are,  are  hereby  itn- 
powered  and  authorized  to  ncminatt  and  appoint  A  (fefTors  and  Col- 
lectors for  fuch  Mannors  or  Jurifdi&ions  as  fliall  ncgk£r  or  relufe,  a$ 
aforefiid.  Which  Affeffors  and  Collectors,  fhall,  to  all  intents  and 
purpofes  obfervethe  directions  of  this  Ad,  any  thing  contained  herein 
to  the  contrary  hereof  in  any  ways  notwithftanding. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  the 
faid  Mayors,  Aldermen  and  Jufttces  of  the  Peace  for  the  refpecrive 
Cities,  Counties,  Mannors  and  Jurifdictions,  have,  and  fhall  have 
Power  and  Authority,  by  virtue  of  this  Act,  each  ottbem  by  himfelf 
to  adoiinifter  an  Oath  to  the  faid  AffeiTors,  Well  *nd  truly,  ta»afyt 
impartial//,  and  in  due  Proportion^  4U  it  jhall  appear  to  tbem,  actor  ding  to 
their  beft  Vndcrjlandingy  to  affrfi  and  rate  the  Inhabitants,  Refidents  and 
Free-holdtrs  of  the  rejpetfive  pltces  for  which  they  fjpali  hechoftn  Jffcjfors. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  if  any 
Perfon  or  Pcrfons,  who  fhall  be  cbofen  Affelsorsor  Collectors,  (ball 
deny,  neglect,  or  Unequally  and  partially  affefs,  or  refufe  t$  make 
fuch  AflHment  as  by  this  Act  is  required,  or  fhall  deny,  neglect,  or 
refufe  to  collect  any  iura  or  funu  of  Money ,  in  form  before  mentioned 
alTefled,  that  then  and  in  fuch  cafe  it  fhall  and  may  be  lawfull  for  any 
two  of  their  Majefties  Juftices  of  the  Peace  of  the  Cities  and  Counties 
where  fuch  Offendors  fhall  happen  to  dwell  or  refide,  and  who  by 
virtue  of  this  Act  are  required  and  impowercd  to  do  the  fame,  by 
Warrant  under  their  Hands  and  S:als  to  commit  fuch  Aflenbrs  or 
Collectors,  fo  denying,  neglecting,  or  unequally  and  partially  atfeflirig, 
orrefufing  to  collect,  as  aforefaid,  to  the  common  Goal,  there  to 
remain  without  Hail  or  Mainprife  till  he  or  they  lhall  maJce  1  ineor 
Ranfom  to  their  Majefties  for  fuch  Contempt  as  aforefaid. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefa  id,  That  if  any 
Perfon  or  Per fons,  of  what  Degree  or  Quality  foevcr  he  or  they  be 
within  this  Province,  who  fhall  be  aflefied  or  rated  any  fum  or  fums 
of  Money,  by  virtue  of  this  Act  toberaifed  and'levied,  fhall  deny, 
refufe  or  delay  to  pay  and  fatisfie  the  fame,  that  then  it  fhall  and  may 
be  lawfull  for  8ny  fuch  Collector ,  by  virtue  of  a  Warrant  under  the 
Hand  'jf  any  of  the  Juftices  for  the  Citj'  and  County  where  fuch 
Offendors  fhall  dwell  or  refide,  who>by  virtueof  this  Act  are  required 
and  authorized  to  grant  and  iflbe  forth  fuch  Warrant,  to  levy  the  fame, 
by  dill  reft  and  fait;  of  fuch  Perfon  or  Perfons  Goods  and  Chattels, 
returning  the  Over-plus,  it  any  be,  to  the  Owners,  the  fum  afleflcd 
and  Charges  of  Diftrefs  and  Sale  being  fir  ft  deducted. 


And 


i  4?  3 


Andaifo,  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaia4,  That 
if  any  Mayor,  Alderman  or  Juftieeof  the  Peace  wkhin  this  Province 
who  are  hereby  required,  impowered  and  authorized  to  take  effectual 
care,  that  this  Aft  and  every  Claufe  therein  beduely  executed  according 
to  the  true  and  genuine  fence  and  intent  thereof,  flnil  deny,  refufeT 
neglect  or  delay  to  do,  perform,  follfill  and  execute  all  or  every  orany 
of  the  Duties,  Powers  and  Authorities  by  this  AS  required  and 
irnpowcred,  by  him  or  them  to  be  done,  performed,  fullfilled  aid 
executed,  and  (hall  thereof  be  lawfully  convicted  before  any  of  their 
Majefties  Courts  of  Record  within  this  Province,  he  or  they  fhallfuffer 
fuch  pain  by  Fine  or  Imprifonment,  as  by  the  Difcretion  of  the  Juftices 
of  the  laid  Courts  fodl  be  adjudged. 

And  be  it  firther  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  if  any 
Action,  Bill,  Plaint  or  Information  fliall  be  brought,  moved  or  prefenred 
at  any  time  hereafter  againft  any  Perfon  orperlbns,  for  any  matter, 
caufe  or  thing  done  or  acted  in  purfuance  or  execution  of  this  A&,  fuch 
PerCbn  or  PerTbns  fo  fued  or  profecuted  in  any  Court  whatlbever,  fhali 
and  may  plead  the  general  lifue,  Not  Guilty,  and  give  this  Act  and  the 
fpecial  matter  in  Evidence ;  and  if  the  Piantiff  or  profecutor  Jhall  be 
non-fuited,  or  forbear  further  Profecution,  orfurTer  Di  (continuance  or 
Verdift  to  pa&  againft  him,  the  Defendant  or  Defendors  {hall  have 
tribleCofts,  for  which  they  fhall  have  like  liberty  as  in  cafe  where  Cofts 
hy  Law  are  given  to  Defendants.  Provided  alwayes,  That  no  Mayor, 
Aldermen  or  |  uftices  of  the  Peace  fliall  be  troubled,  fued,  profecuted  or 
molefted  for  any  omiflion,  offence,  or  negle&,  by  virtue  of  this  Ad, 
but  within  the  fpace  of  one  year  after  fuch  o million  offence  or  ncgle£r, 
and  not  at  any  time  thereafter,  any  thing  herein  contained  to  the  con- 
trary hereof  in  any  wife  not  with  ft  anding, 

Alwayes  provided,  and  be  it  further  Ena&ed  by  the  Authority  afore- 
faid,  That  the  feveral  Colle&ors  of  each  refpe£tive  City  and  County 
as  aforefaid,  ilia  11  have  the  liberty  to  pay  the  feveral  and  rcfpe&tve 
f urns  afiefled,  as  aforefaid,  at  the  day  aforementioned,  in  Silver  Money, 
or  for  want  thereof  in  good  fufficient  and  merchantable  Provifions  at 
the  currant  Market  Price  in  Silver  Money  at  Ne*-Tork%  any  thing 
contained  herein  to  the  contrary  hereof  in  any  ways  notwuhftanding. 


An  All  for  the  Regulating  the  Buddings,  Street s> 
Lanes,  Wharfs,  Docks  and  Allyes  of  the  City  of 
New- York. 


w 


7  Hereas  the  City  of  New-Torky  and  Metropolis  of  this  Province, 
was  chiefly  created  by  the  Inhabitants  thereof  lor  the  prupaga- 

tlng 


r«4  3  ,    ,  , 

ting  and  encouragement  of  Trade  and  Commerce,  and  for  the  good, 

benefit  and  wellfare  of  their  Majefties  Subje&s  inhabiting  within  this 
Province.  And  forafmuch  as  it  is  very  neceffary  for  Traffick  and 
Gommeree,  that  Buildings,  Streets,  Lanes,  Wharffs,  Docks  and 
AHyes  of  the  laid  City  be  conveniently  regulated  with  Uniformity,  for 
th°  accommodation  of  Habitations,  Shipping,  Trade  and  Commerce, 
and  that  all  Impediments  and  Obftru&ions  that  may  retard  fb  neceflary 
a  Work,  may  be  removed,  Be  it  Ena&ed  by  the  Commander  in  Chief 
and  Council,  and  Reprelentatives  met  in  general  Afiembly,  and  by  the 
Authority  of  the  fame,  That  the  Mayor,  Aldermen  and  Common- 
Council  of  the  faid  City,  fhall  and  may,  at  their  will  and  pleafure, 
elecl:,  nominate  or  appoint  one  or  more  difcreet  and  intelligent  Perfbn 
or  Perfons  to  be  the  Surveyors  or  Supervifors  of  their  Bui!dings,Streets, 
Lanes,  Wharffs,  Docks  and  Allyes,  and  to  lee  that  the  Buildings, 
Streets,  Lanes,  Wharffs,  Docks  and  Allyes  of  the  laid  City  be  conve- 
niently regulated  with  Uniformity  for  the  Accomodation  of  Habitations, 
Shipping,  Trade  and  Commerce,  according  to  fuch  Rules  and  Orders  of 
Building  and  laying  out  of  Streets,  Lanes,  ^Wharffs,  Docks,  and  Allyes, 
as  fhall  be  eftablifhed  by  the  Mayor,  Aldermen  and  Common-Council 
of  the  faid  City,  who  are  hereby  authorized  and  impowered  to  make 
fuch  Rules  and  Orders  for  the  better  Regulation,  Uniformity  and 
Gracefulnefs  of  fuch  New-Buildings  as  fhall  be  erected  for  Habitations, 
and  alio  of  fuch  Streets,  Lanes,  Wharffs,  Docks  and  Altes,  as  fhall  be 
found  convenient  for  the  good  of  the  Inhabitants.  And  it  fhall  be 
lawful  for  the  Mayor,  Aldermen  and  Common-Council,  or  for  the 
Mayor  and  Aldermen  in  their  Court,  to  adminifter  an  Oath  upon  the 
holy  Evangelifts,  unto  the  Surveyors  or  Sjpervifors,  of  the  true  and 
impartial  Execution  of  their  Omce  in  that  behalf. 

And  whereas  in  the  laying  out  of  the  New  Lots  for  Buildings,  fome 
Controverfie  may  arife,  by  a  Lot  or  Lots  of  Ground,  which  if  built 
upon,  would  be  very  incommodious  and  prejudicial  rooneof  the  prin- 
cipal Streets  of  this  City,  and  hurtful  to  the  Trade  and  Health  of  the 
Inhabitants,  Be  it  therefore  fcna&ed  by  the  Authority  aforefaid, 
That  the  Mayor,  Aldermen  and  Common- Council  of  the  faid  City, 
for  the  time  being,  in  Common-Council  aflembled,  0>all,  and  may, 
and  are  hereby  impowered  and  required  to  obftrucl:  any  Building  or 
Buildings  that  may  narrow  the  faid  Street,  or  any  other  Street  within 
the  faid  City.  And  the  faid  Mayor,  Aldermen  and  Common  Counci! 
fhall,  and  may  by  virtue  of  this  prefent  A&,  continue  the  faid  Street, 
commonly  called  the  Broad  Street,  according  to  its  prefent  Dimenfions, 
and  if  in  the  doing  thereof,  or  in  the  laying  out  for  the  future  any 
Streets,  Lanes,  Wharffs,  Decks  or  Allyes,  and  they  do  take  any 
Perfons  Ground,  they  are  to  give  Notice  to  the  Owners  or  Parties 
Interefted  ip  the  Ground,  to  be  fb  taken  for  the  intent  as  aforcfaid  ;  and 
to  the  end  that  reafonable  'atisfaclion  may  be  given  for  all  fuch 
Ground  as  fhall  be  taken  and  imploycd  for  the  Ufe  aforefaid,  the 
Commander  in  chief  and  Council,  may  alfefs  the  value  of  the  Lots 

now 


t  4<>  i 

now  in  ControverGe;  and  for  other  Ground,  the  Mayor,  4ld«rmM 
and  Common-Council  shall  and  may  treat  and  agree  wrriulie  Owneis, 
and  others  interefted  therein;   and  if («here  be  any  Perfbn  that  ffi^lsfc 
refufe  to  treat  in  manner  aforefaid,  that  in  fuch  cafe  the  Mayoral 
Aldermen  in  their  Court,  are  hereby  authorized,  by  virtacof  this  ftH 
to  iiruc  out  a  Warrant  or  Warrants  to  the  Sheriff  of  the  feid    hy,  who 
is  hereby  required  to  impannel&  return  a  Jury  betore  the  faid  Court  of 
Mayor  and  Aldermen.    Which  Jury,  upon  their  Oathes,  to  be  adml* 
niftredby  the  faid  Court,  are  to  enquire  and  affefs  ftwh  Damages  and 
Reeorrpence  as  they  (hall  judge  fit  to  be  awarded  to  the  Owners  alid 
others  interefted,  according  to  their  leveral  and  re! pe&ive  Inter^fts  and 
Eftates  of  any  fuch  ground,  or  any  part  thereof,  for  their  rtfpe&ive 
Intereils  and  Eftates  in  the  feme,  as  by  the  (aid  Mayor,  Aldermen  and 
tommon  Council  fhall  be  adjudgH  fit  io  be  converted  to  the  purpofes 
aforefaid  ;  and  fuch  Verdict  of  the  Jury,  and  Judgment  of  the  faid 
Court  of  Mayor  and  Aldermen  thereupon,  and  the  payment  of  the 
faid  fum  and  fumsof  Money  Co  awarded  or  adjudged,  to  the  Owners, 
or  others  ha  vine  Eftate  or  Intereft,  or  tender,  or  refufal  thereof,  fhall 
be  bindmg  to  all  intents  and  purpofes,  againft  the  faid  Parties,  their 
Heirs,  Executors,  Adminiftratofsand  Alfigns,  and  all  others  claiming 
any  Title  and  Intereft  to  the  faid  Ground,  and  fhall  be  a  full  Authority 
to  the  (aid  Mayor,  Aldermen  and  Common  Council  to  caufe  the  faid 
Ground  to  be  converted  and  ufed  for  the  purpofes  aforefaid,  any  thing 
contrary  herein,  or  in  any  other  Law  to  the  contrary  hereof  in  any; 
wayes  notwithstanding. 

And  forafmuGhas  the  Filth  and  Soil  of  the  faid  City,  lying  in  the 
pub  lick  Streets  thereof,  dothofton  prove  a  common  Nufance  unto  the 
Inhabitants  and  Traders  to  and  from  the  faid  City,  and  very  prejudicial 
to  their  Health ;  For  the  Removal  thereof,  fie  it  further  fcna&ed  by 
the  Aurhbnty  aforefaid,  Thatth«  Numbers  and  places  for  all  common 
Severs,  Drains  and  Vaults,  and  the  O  der  and  manner  of  Paving  and 
Pit«hiog  Lhe  Streets,  Lanes  and  Ailyes  of  the  faid  City,  fhall  bedefigned 
and  let  out  by  the  Mayor,  Aldermen  and  Common  Council  oi  lhe  laid 
City,  together  with  the  (aid  Surveyors  or  Supervilbrs  appointed  in 
manner  aforefaid ;  and  when  they  afTemble  fhall  have  Power  and  Au* 
thoritv  lo  order  and  direct  the  making  of  Vaults,  D.  ains  and  Sevef.?,  or 
to  cut  into  any  Drain  or  Sev«r  already  made,  and  for  the  altering, 
enlarging,  amending,  cleanfing  aad  fcouring  of  Vaults,  Sinks  or 
common  Severs    And  foi  the  better  effecting  thereof,  it  fhall  and 
maybe  lawful  to  and  for  the  faid  Mayor,  aldermen  and  Common 
Council,  together  with  the  Surveyors  and  Supervifors,  at  rheirfaid 
Meeting,  to  impofe  any  reafonablc  Tax  upon  all  Homes  within  the 
faid  Cicy,  in  proportion  so  the  benefit  they  fhall  receive  thereby,  tor 
and  towards  the  making,  cutting,  altering,  enlarging,  amending, 
cleanfing  and  fcouring  all  and  fingular  the  faid  Vaults,  Drains.  Severs, 
Pavements  and   itching  aforefaid.    And  m  default  of  payment  of  the 
.faidfumcobe  charged,  ltfhail  and  may  be  lawful  to  and  for  the  (aid 

M  Mayor 


1 


[  46  J 

Mayor  and  Alderrrcn,  &ct  fo  authorized  as  aforefaid,  by  Order  or 
Warrant  under  their  Hands  and  Seals,  toleavy  the  laid  iiim  and  fums 
of  Money,  fo  aiTeffed,  by  diftrefs  and  fale  of  the  Goods  of  the  Parties 
chargeable  therewith,  and  refufing  or  neglecting  to  pay  the  fame, 
rendring  the  over-plus,  if  any  be. 

Alwaycs  provided,  and  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority 
aforefaid,  That  nothing  herein  contam'd  fhall  beconftrued  to  change, 
alter,  ftiorten,  lengthen,  narrow  or  enlarge  any  of  the  Streets, 
AHyes  and  Lanes  within  this  City,  as  they  are  now  laid  out  and  remain 
at  the  Publication  hereof.  Nor  to  break  thorow  any  Perfons  Ground 
now  in  Fence  or  Encloled,  or  to  take  away  any  Perfons  Houfeor 
Habitations,  any  thing  herein  contained  to  the  contrary  hereof  in 
any  ways  notwithftanding. 


A£ts  paffed  in  the  third  Sefficns  of 
the  General  Affembly,  begun  in  the  City  of 
SXep-Tork,  April  19.  1692. 


An  A8  for  the  ra'tfeng  two  hundred  Men  with  their 
proper  Officers  for  the  fecuringand  reinforcing  of 
Albany  in  the  Front eers  of  this  Province. 

WHereas  the  Forces  lately  raifed  for  the  Re-inforcing  and  Securing 
the  Fronteersat  Albany,  are  not  to  continue  in  that  ferviceany 
longer  than  the  firft  of  May  next  enfuing.  And  forafmuch  as  it  is  ftill 
abfoluteiy  neceffary  for  the  fafety  of  all  their  Majeft ies  Neighbouring 
Collonies  and  Plantations,  as  well  for  the  fecunty  of  this  Province, 
that  there  be  and  remaia  at  that  place  fufBcieut  Force  for  the  Defence 
thereof.  And  whereas  the  prefent  State  &  Condition  of  this  Province 
is  fuch,  that  they  are  not  able  at  this  time  to  make  fufficient  Provifion 
of  Menand  Money,  for  the  re-inforcing  of  that  place,  as  is  truly 
nccelTary  for  the  maintaining  fuch  a  confiderable  Port,  which  is*  the  only 
Bull-work  of  Detence  for  all  their  Majeft  ies  Neighbouring  Collonies 
and  Plantations  in  this  main  of  America;  yet  that  the  laid  place  may 
not  be  deferted,  nor  xhtlndUttSy  who  have  been  fo  conftant  to  us  diU 
couraged,  Be  it  therfore  Enacted  by  the  Commander  in  chief  and 
Couneil,  and  Reprefentacives  convened  in  General  AiTembly,  and  by 
the  Authority  of  the  fame,  That  the  Commander  in  chief  do  iflue  out 
his  Warrants  to  the  chief  Military  Officers  in  the  refpe&ive  Ciues  and 
Counties  under-named,  for  the  raifing  of  200  men,  armed  as  the 

Law 


\ 


E  47  3 

Law  direfts,  with  their  proper  Officers,  in  fuch  Proportions  hereaftar 
mentioned,  to  confift  and  make  two  diftinft  Companies  of  Fuxileers, 
for  the  Reinforcement  and  Security  of  the  Fronceers  of  tins  Provi  nee 
in  the  County  Of  Jlbtm  aforefaid,  which  fhall  continue  and  remain 
in  the  laid  County  of  Alba»yt  for  the  Defence  and  Security  thereof  for 
the  term  andfpaceof  five  Moneths,  to  commence  on  the  firft  day  of 
May  next,  and  to  end  and  terminate  on  the  firft  day  of  Oilober  then 
following. 

And  be  it  further  Ena&ed  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  if  any 
Perfonor  Ferlons,  who  in  purfuance  of  fuch  Warrant  or  Warrants,  to 
be  by  the  Commander  inchier  uTued  out  to  the  chief  Military  Officer  of 
each  refpe£tive  City  and  County  or  Counties,  as  aforefaid,  jhall  be  warn- 
ed toappear  in  Arms,  in  order  to  the  raifing  the  200  men  aforefaid,  /hall 
negleft  delay  or  refufc  to  appear,  or  other  wife  abfent  him  or  themfelvcs 
£hali  forfeit  the  fura  of  five  Founds  currant  Money,  to  be  levied  by 
Diftrefs,  by  Warrant  under  the  Hand  and  Seal  of  any  Jufticc  of  the 
Peace  within  this  Province,  on  the  Goods  and  Chattels  of  cv£ry  fuch 
Perfon  or  Perfbns  fb  offending  as  aforfaid,  upon  a  Certificate  of  fu«h 
Default,  from  the  Captain  or  chief  Officer  of  fuch  Company,  in  or  to 
which  the  laid  Offender  Jhall  be  lifted  or  belong,  under  his  Hand  &  <$eal 
which  faid  fum  of  $  /.  ftiailbe  imployed  for  t  he  encouragement  and 
raifing  the  Quota  of  men,  by  this  Acl:,  in  each  refpe&ive  City  &  Count/ 
or  counties  to  beraifed,  as  aforefaid.  And  in  cafe  fuch  Perfon  or  Perfbns 
fb  offending  as  aforefaid,  fliallnot  have  Goods  and  Chattels  to  be  found 
to  pay  and  fatisfie  the  fum  of  five  Pounds  aforefaid,  fuch  Perfon  or 
Feribns,  upon  fuch  Certificate,  and  by  fuch  Warrant  as  aforefaid,  ftjall 
becommjted  to  the  common  Goalof  tho  lamcCity  or  County  orCountie* 
thereto  remain  without  Bail  or  Mainprise  for  the  fpace  or  term  of  five 
Moncths,  or  untill  he  or  they  fhall  faci&fie  the  fum  of  five  Pounds 
aforefaid. 

And  for  the  paying  and  maintaining  the  faid  two  hundred  men,  and 
their  proper  Officers,  Be  it  further  Enacled  by  the  Authority  aforefaid 
That  a  Levy  of  fifteen  Hundred  Pounds  currant  Money  of  th  is  Province' 
be  laid,  aiTefTcd,  rarfed  and  levied  upon  all  and  every  rhe  Inhabitants' 
Refidentsand  Freeholders  of  and  in  this  Province,  for  the  paying  and' 
maintaining  of  the  faid  two  hundred  men,  and  their  proper  Officers 
for  five  Months,  as  aforefaid,  and  for  no  other  ufe,  intent  or  purpofe 
whatfoever.  To  be  laid,  affefTed,  railed,  levyed  and  paid  to  their 
Majefties  Collector  and  Receiver  General  for  the  time  being,  at  their 
Majefties  Cuftom-houfe  in  the  City  of  NeivTo*ky  on  the  firft  day  of 
Septet kr,  next  enfuing,  which  fhall  be  in  the  Year  of  our  Lojd  1692. 
according  to  the  Rates  and  Proportions  following,  that  is  to  fay, 

For  the  City  and  County  of  New-Jorky  $4$/.  for  the  paying  an<$ 
mainta  ining  46  men,  being  their  Quota  and  Proportion  of  the  200  meo 
aforefaid. 

For 


C  4S  3 

For  the  County  of  tVeftchefer,  127/.  xo  s.  for  the  paying  and 
maintaining  17  men,  being  their  quota  and  proportion,  as  aforefaid. 

For  the  County  of  Richmond,  6jl.  10  s.  for  the  paying  and  main- 
taining of  nine  men,  being  their  quota  and  proportion,  as  aforefaid. 

For  the  Ceunty  of  Vljier  and  Dutches  County,  1 1  o  /.  tor  the  pay- 
ing and  mainta  ining  28  men,  being  their  quota  and  proportion,  as 
aforefaid. 

For  the  County  of  Suffolk,  300  /.  for  the  paying  and  maintaining  4c 
men,  being  their  quota  and  proportion,  asaforefaid. 

For  K/ngs  County,  210/.  for  the  paying  and  maintaining  28  men, 
being  their  quota  and  proportion,  as  aforefaid. 

For  Qtieens  County,  22$  /•  lor  the  paying  &  maintaining  30  men,  Sep. . 

For  the  County  of  Orange,  15/.  forthe  paying  and  maintaining  twd 
men,  being  their  quota  and  proportion ,  as  aforefaid. 

Andalfo,  be  it  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  fuc  h  furrt 
or  fumsof  Money  of  the  feveral  fums  of  2500  /.  lately  rai  fed  by  the1 
Act  of  General  AfTemly,  forthe  paying  and  defraying  of  the  Charges 
of  2<joFuzileers,  with  their  Officers,  raifed  for  the  fecuringapd  defence4 
of  Albany,  which  fhall  and  doth  remain  uridifpofed  of,  and  not  imploy* 
edlbrtheUfes  aforefaid,  fhall  be  laid  out  and  applyed  towards  the 
defraying  the  incidental  Charge  or  Expence  which  fnaff  or  may  happen 
or  be  occafioned  by  the  raifing,  tranfportingand  maintaining  of  the  twd 
hundred  Fuziieers,  with  their  proper  Officers,  before  in  this  Aft  nun* 
tionod  and  expreffed. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  for  tfrd 
better  atTeffing,  raifing  &  paying  the  futn  of  one  thoufand  five  hundred 
Pounds  aforefaid,  The  Mayor  and  Aldermen  in  the  City  of  New-Ybrk, 
for  the  time  being,  and  the  JuftiGesof  the  Peace,  forthe  time  being, 
for  the  feveral  respective  Counties  aforefaid,  forthe  feveral  Counties 
refpectively,  for  the  which  they  fhall  be  Juftices  of  the  Peace,  do  within 
forty  dayes  after  the  publication  hereof,  affemble  and  meet  together  ia 
the  Court  Houfes  for  the  feveral  refpedtive  City  and  Counties,  orfuch 
other  place  or  places  as  they  fhall  agree  upon  among  themfelves,  and 
(ball  there  order  that  the  AfferTors  and  Collectors  for  the  feveral  refpeC- 
tive  City,  Towns,  Manners  or  Liberties,  within  their  feveral  Juri£ 
dictions,  for  the  affe&ing,  collecting  and  receiving  of  the  publick  Rates, 
for  the  defraying  of  the  publick  Charge  of  each  refpeOive  City  and 
County  aforefaid,  be  the  AfTefTors  and  Collectors,  for  the  aiTeffing, 
collecling  or  receiving  the  fu,m  or  fums  of  Money  herein  before  men- 
tioned, according  to  the  Proportions  before  expreffed,  as  to  the  fard 
Mayor,  Aldermen  and  Juftices  ihall  feem  meet  and  reafbnable. 

And  forafmuch  as  there  are  feveral  Mannors  and  Jurifdidlions  withfit 
the  reactive  Counties  aforefaid,  who  neglect  or  do  not  eleft  annually 
or  once  every  year  AfT«flbrs  or  Colleftors,  whereby  the  intent  of  this 
Alt  'may  be  fruftrated,  Be  it  therefore  EnaSedby  the  Authority  afore- 
faid, 


faid,  That  if  there  fpc&ive  Mannors &JurifdiSiorts  within  the  ieverai 
Counnes  aforefaid,  fhall  refufe  or  negled  to  ele&  Affeff  ts  aad 
Colteaors,  for  affetfingof  their  refpe&ive  Maoaors  or  Jvtifdidiio  ns, 
and  for  tbecolle&ing  the  fame,  according  to  the  intent  and  direction 
of  this  Ad,  then  and  in  fuch  eafe  the  Juffices  of  the  Peace  in  the 
Counties  where  fuea  Mannors  w  Jurifdi&ions  are.  are  hereby  im- 
powered  and  authorized  to  nominate  and  appoint  A ffeffors  and  Col* 
le&ors  for  fuch  Mannors  or  Jurifdi&ions  as  fhall  negleft  or  refufe,  as 
aforefakL  Which  Affeffors  and  Collectors,  fhall,  to  ad  intents  and 
purpofes  obfervethe  direftionsof  this  A6t^  any  thing  concained  herein 
to  the  contrary  hereof  in  any  ways  notwithstanding. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  f  hat  the 
faid  Mayors,  Aldermen  and  Juftices  of  the  Peace  for  the  refpective 
Cities,  Counties,  Mannors  and  J  uri  (dictions,  have,  and  fhall  havo 
Power  and  Authority,  by  virtue  of  this  Act,  each  of  them  by  hftnfelf 
to  ad^ninifter  an  Oath  to  the  faid  AfTcffors,  fftll  and  txtlf,  equally , 
impsrtudly,  audio  due  Proportion^  as  it  fball  appear  to  them,  assorting  to 
their  he f  Vnder(tandt»g,  to  affcj?  and  rate  the  Inhabit  tot  fy  Refdents  an*a 
Iree-hjldas  of  the  rejfeffive  places  for  which  they  (ball  k  cho fern  Ajjefforj. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  if  any 
Per  fon  or  Perfons,  who  fhall  be  chofen  Aifetsors  or  Collectors,  fhall 
deny,  neglect,  or  onequally  and  partially  aflfefs,  or  refufe  to  make 
fuch  AfTcFmcBt  as  by  this  Act  is  required,  or  thai  1  deny,  neglecr,  or 
refufe  to  collect  any  Fum  or  fums  of  Money,  in  form  before  mentioned 
afletfed,  that  then  and  in  fuch  cafe  it  fhall  and  may  be  law  full  for  an  y 
two  of  their  Majefties  Juftices  of  the  Peace  of  the  Cities  and  Counties 
where  fuch  Offendors  fhall  happen  to  dwell  or  reftde  and  who  by 
virtue  of  this  Act  are  required  and  irnpowercdto  do  the  fame,  by 
Warrant  under  their  Hands  and  Seals  to  corrtm.it  fuch  Affeibrs  or 
Collectors,  fo denying,  neglecting,  or  unequally  and  partially  atfcffiag, 
or  refuting  to  collect,  as  aforefaid,  to  the  common  Goal,  there  to 
remain  without  Bail  or  Mainprife  till  be  or  they  fhall  make  Fine  or 
Ranfom  to  their  Majefties  for  fuch  Contempt  as  aforefaid 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefa  id.  That  if  any 
Pcrfbn  or  Perfons,  of  what  Degree  or  Quality  (bever  he  or  they  be 
within  this  Province,  who  fhall  be  aflefled  or  rated  any  fum  or  fiims 
of  Mone?,  by  virtue  of  this  Act  to  be  railed  and  levied,  fh*l!  deny, 
refute  or  delay  to  pay  and  /arisfie  the  fame,  that  then  it  fhall  and  may 
be  lawrull  for  any  fuch  Colic  tor,  by  virtue  of  a  Warrant  under  the 
Hand  of  any  of  the  Juftices  for  the  City  and  County  where  fuch 
OEPendors fhall  dweU  or  refide,  who. by  vi  tueof  this  Act  are  required 
and  authorized  to  grant  and  iflue  forth  fuch  Warrant,  to  levy  the  fame, 
by  diftrets  and  fait  of  fuch  Pcrfon  or  Perfons  Goods  and  Chattels', 
returning  the  Ov  er-plus,  if  any  be,  to  the  Owners,  the  fum  aiTefTcd 
and  Charges  of  Diftrefs  and  Sale  being  fir  ft  deducted. 


C  50  3 


AndaJfo,  be  it  further  Enaeted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That 
if  any  Mayor,  Alderman  or  J  uftiee  of  the  Peaee  within  this  Province, 
who  are  hereby  required,  im  powered  and  autbonzea  to  take  effectual 
care,  that  this  A&  and  every  Claufe  therein  beduely  executed  according 
to  the  true  and  genuine  fence  and  intent  thereof,  flail  deny,  refufe, 
aegleet  or  delay  to  do,  perform,  fullfill  and  execute  all  or  every  or  any 
of  the  Duties,  Powers  and  Authorities  by  this  Act.  required  and 
impowered,  by  him  or  *hem  to  be  done,  performed,  fullfilled  and 
executed,  and  fhall  thereof  be  lawfully  «o»vict«d  before  any  of  their 
Majefties  Courts  of  Record  within  this  Province,  he  or  they  fhall  furfer 
fiich  pain  by  Fine  or  Imprifonment,  as  by  the  Difcretion  of  the  Juftices 
of  the  faid  Courts  fhall  be  adjudged. 

And  whereas  there  hath  been  great  neglect  in  the  Juft  ices  of  the  Peace, 
Collectors  and  AfTefTors,  who  haVe  delayed  executing  their refpe£Hv« 
Duties,  according  to  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  the  former  Acts 
made  in  feveral  Seflions  of  this  prefect  ArTembly ;  For  the  prevention 
of  the  like  for  the  future,  Be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  afore- 
faid, That  if  any  of  the  refpective  Cities  and  Counties  aforefaid  fball 
refufe,  negle&  or  delay  to  have  their  refpective  Quota  or  Proportion  of 
Men  at  the  City  of  New-Tork,  or  at  the  City  of  Albany,  on  or  before  the 
20th  day  of  May  now  nextenfuing,  purfuant  to  the  Warrant  directed  to 
them  from  the  Commander  in  chief,  as  aforefaid  ;  And  alfo,  if  any  of 
the  refpective  Cities  and  Counties  aforefaid,  fhall  refufe,  delay  or  neglect 
to  make  payment  of  the  feveral  refpeftive  Sums  or  Proportions  of 
Money,  by  them  reflectively  to  be  paid,  as  aforefaid,  at  the  time  and 
place  above  mentioned  and  appoined,  That  then,  and  for  every  day 
after  the  laid  day  afore-mentioned  and  appointed  for  the  payment  there- 
of, or  until  the  whole  Sums  and  Proportions  of  each  refpective  City 
and  County  fhall  be  fully  paid  and  Satisfied,  fuch  City  and  County  or 
Counties  tnat  fhall  be  defective  therein,  fhall  each  and  every  of  them 
forfeit  and  pay  for  the  intent  aforefaid,  the  farther  Sum  of  five  Pounds 
currant  Money  aforefaid,  for  each  dayes  default  or  neglect  of  having 
their  quota  of  Men  or  Payment  of  their  relpc&ive  Proportions  at  the 
times  appointed. 

And  for  the  enabling  the  Commander  in  chief  to  borrow  Money,  or 
CO  agree  for  ProviCons  for  the  maintaining  of  the  two  Companies  afore- 
faid, that  the  purpolci  of  this  Act  may  be  truly  attended  and  executed, 
Be  it  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  it  jQiall  and  may  be 
lawful  for  any  Perfbnor  Perlbns  to  advance  &•  lend  to  the  Commander 
in  chief,  &c.  upon  the  Credit  of  this  Act  any  Sum  or  Sums  of  Money, 
not  exceeding  the  Sum  of  700  L  and  to  have  and  receive  tor  the  forbear- 
ance of  all  fuch  Money  as  fhall  be  lent,  Intereft  not  exceeding  the  Rate 
of  Ten  per  Cent,  per  Annum. 

And  t<?  the  end  that  all  Monycs  and  Provifions  which  fhall  be  fo  lent 

unto 


C  ?i  3 

uuro  the  Commander  in  chief,  &c  may  be  weli  and  fufEcientfy  floured 
on:  of  the  Moneys  arifing  and  payable  by  this  Ad,  with  the  luterefl  tor 
the  laine,  no:  exceeding  Ten  per  Cent,  per  Annum,  as  aforefaid,  Be  it 
lurcher  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  their  M^fties  Col- 
lector and  Receiver  General  for  the  time  being,  (ha)l  fepcrate  and  keep 
apart  all  the  Money  arifing  by  the  Rates  &  P*-oporwons  hereby  granred, 
as  the  fame  Oiall  arifc  and  be  paid  unto  hirn  by  die  Receivers  or  Col- 
lector s  of  the  feme,  or  by  any  other  Per  fen  whatfoever,  keeping  a 
perfect  and  diftinct  Account,  as  the  lame  fhall  come  in  :  Which  Sum 
or  Sums  of  Money,  fo  by  him  received,  asaforelafd,  fhall  not  be  Ope- 
rated or  paid  unto  any  other  Perfon  or  Perfons  .whatfoever,  but  u»to 
fuch  as  fball  lend  *ny  Money  to  the  Commander  w  chief,  &c  upon  the 
Credit  of  this  Act,  who  shall  immediately  haves  Warrant  and  an  Order 
for  the  Repayment,  bearing  the  fame  date  in  which  he  paid  his  Money, 
wherein  fhall  likewife  be  contained  the  Intcrcft  for  forbearance  \  and 
that  all  Orders  for  Re-payment  shall  be  Rcgiftered  in  coarle,  according 
to  the  date  of  the  Warrant  refpe&ivel.r,  without  preference  of  one  be- 
fore another.  And  that  all  and  every  Perfon  or  Perfons  flail  be  pai4 
in  courfe,  according  as  their  Orders  (hajl  ftand  Regiftefced  orontred  ; 
and  that  the  Money  to  come  in  by  this  Aft  fhall  be  in  the  feme  Order 
lyabletothefatisfa&ionof  the  laid  refpe&ive  Parties,  tkeijf  E*eCutor$, 
Adminiftratotsor  Afligns,  fuccemvely,  without  preference  of  one  be- 
fore another,  f.ad  nototherwife;  ana  not  to  bedivertibietoany  other 
ufe,  intent  or  purpole  whatfoever. 

And  be  it  farther  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  if  any 
A&ion,  Bill,  Plaint  or  Information  fhall  be  brought,  moved  or  prefenred 
at  any  time  hereafwr  againft  any  Perfon  or  Perfons,  for  any  matter, 
caufe  or  thing  done  or  a&ed  in  purfuance  or  execution  of  this  AO:,  fu  eh 
Perfon  or  Perfons  fo  fued  or  profecu ted  in  any  Court  whatfoever,  fhall 
and  may  plead  the  general  UToe,  Not  Guilty  and  give  this  Acfcantf  the 
fpeeial  matter  in  Evidence ;  and  if  the  Plantiff  or  Profecutor  (ball  be 
non-fuited,  or  forbear  further  Profecution,  or  furTer  Di (continuance  oc 
Verdict  to  pafs  againft  him,  the  Defendant  or  Defendors  fhall  have 
trible  Cofts,  for  which  they  fhall  have  like  liberty  as  in  cafe  where  Cofts 
bv  Law  are  given  to  Defendants,  Provided  alwayes,  That  no  Mayor, 
Aldermen  or  J  unices  of  the  Peace  (hall  be  troubled,  fued,  profecu^ed  or 
molefted  for  any  omiflion,  offence,  or  neglect,  by  virtue  of  this 
but  within  the  fpace  of  one  year  after  fuch  omilion  offence  or  ncgleft, 
and  not  at  any  time  thereafter,  any  tiling  herein  contained  to  the  con- 
trary hereof  in  any  wife  not  with  ft  anding. 

Alwayes  provided,  and  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  afore* 
laid.  That  the  feveral  Collectors  of  each  refpeftive  City  and  County 
as  aforefaid,  fhall  have  the  liberty  to  pay  the  feveral  and  refpecVvc 
fumsafefied,  as  aforefaid,  at  the  day  aforementioned,  in  Silver  Mjney, 
or  for  want  thereof  in  good  fufficient  and  merchantable  Provifions  at 
the  eurrant  Market  Price  in  Silver  Money  at  Ntr9-lorky  any  thing 
contained  herein  to  the  contrary  hereof  in  any  ways  notwithstanding. 


1 1*  1 


An  AH  for  the  deftroying  of  W  olves. 

BE  it  Enacted  by  the  Commander  in  chief  and  Council,  and  Re- 
prefentatives  couvened  in  General  AlTembly,  and  by  the  Autho- 
rity of  the  fame,  That  for  the  deftroying  of  Wolves,  who  have  lately 
increafed  very  much,  to  the  great  difcouragemcnt  of  Pafturage,  and 
©acreale  of  Sheep  and  Cattle,  That  whatfoever  ChriJtim  (hall  kill  a 
grows  Wolf  bpon  LoMg-ijland  or  Staten-ljlandy  he  (hall  have  for  each 
Wolf  that  (hall  be  killed  twenty  Shillings,  to  he  paid  out  of  the  publick 
Treafury  of  each  refpc&ive  Couaty  where  the  Wolf  (hall be  killed; 
aadforaWoif  Whelp  above  half  a  year  old,  there  (hall  be  paid,  as 
aforefaid,  ten  (hillings.  And  whatfoever  Indian  in  like  mannei 
kill  any  Wolf,  (hall  have  for  his  Reward,  one  Matchcoat  or  twelve 
Shillings,  and  for  a  Wolf  Whelp  fire  Shillings,  ta  be  paid  him  as  afore- 
faid. And  if  any  other  County  in  the  Proviaee  have  a  mind  to  encou- 
rage the  deftroying  of  Wolves,  they  shall  do  it  in  fuch  maanerand  way 
as  to  them  shall  feem  meet.  And  the  Juftices  of  the  Peace,  and  othti 
Officers  of  therefpeftive  Counties aforefaid,  shall  take  effectual  care  w 
fee  this  Act  and  every  claufe  therein  ducly  executed  accordingly. 


A&s  paffed  in  the  fourth  Seffions  of 

the  General  Aflembly  ,begun  in  the  City  of  New* 
Tork,  the  1 4.  day  of  Auguft,  Annoq\  Dom.  1692. 
inthe^th  Year  of  their  Majefties  Reign,  King 
William  and  Queen  Mary,  under  the  Govern- 
ment of  his  Excellency  Benjamin  Eletcher,  Efq; 
Captain  General  and  Governour  in  chief  in  and 
over  their  Majefties  Province  of  t\ew>%r£,  and 
Territories  thereon  depending  in  America. 


An  A3  for  the  raifing  and  pay  two  hundred  and  twenty 
Men  with  their  proper  Officers,  together  with  the 
incidental  Charges  that  shall  wife  thereon,  for  the 
%e-mforcement  and  Security  of  the  Frontiers  of 
this  Province,  at  Albany,  for  7  Months. 

WHereas  the  Levy*  appointed  for  the  Defence  of  che  FronceersoF 
this  Province  at  Alhrny^  do  expire  on  the  fvft  day  of  Oftobcr 
next,  and  that  it  is  abfblutely  neceflary  that  there  should  bt  con* 
tinued  at  that  place  a  ionfiderable  Force  for  the  ecuncy  ot  this  Pro* 
vince,  as  wellas  for  the  neccfTary  Defence  of  their  Ma)e'iics  Neighbour- 
ing Plantations,  B«  it  therefore  Ena&ed  by  the  Governour,  Council, 
and  Reprefentatives  convened  in  General  AfTemblv,  and  by  che  Au- 
thority of  the  fame,  That  his  Excellency  the  Captati  General  do  imme- 
diately upon  the  Publication  hereof,  lflue  out  his  Warranrs  under  his 
Hand  and  Seal,  to  the  feveral  and  refpective  Military  Officers  of  the 
feveral  and  refpe&ive  Counties  hereafter  named,  for  cne  raifing  of  220 
men,  well  provided  with]Arms,to  be  peremptorily  at  Alfanjon  the  fir/% 
day  of  Oclobtr  next  enfuing,  and  there  to  continue  and  remain  for  che 
Reinforcement  and  Security  of  this  Province,  for  the  term  and  fpac*  of, 
feven  Kalender  Moneths,  to  commence  on  the  faid  firft  day  01  Oftohtrt 
and  to  expire  on  the  firftday  ot  Mtv  then  next  enfuing,  in  fuch  quotas 
and  proportions  in  each  refpectivtCJunty,  as  is  hereafter  fpecih\.d  and 
exprefled ,  to  wit, 
For  the  City  and  County  of  tfew-Tirk,  fixty  effective  men. 

O  For 


For  the  County  of  rVeficheffer,'  twenty  five  effective  men. 

For  the  County  of  Richmond,  ten  effective  men. 

For  Kjngi  County,  thirty  four  effective  men. 

For  Queens  County ,  forty  four  effective  men 

For  the  County  or  Suffolk,  forty  five  effective  men. 

For  the  County  of  Orwge,  two  effective  men. 

£ndbe  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforelaid,  That  if  any 
©f  the  refpective  Military  Officers  in  the  refpective  Counties  aforelaid, 
fhall  after  the  Receipt  of  the  Warrants  from  the  Captain  General,  in 
manner  aforefaid,  fail,  neglect,  refufe  or  delay  to  execute  the  faid 
Warrants,  according  to  the  true  intent  and  meaning  thereof,  shall  for 
fuch  their  failure,  or  neglect,  refufal  or  delay,  anfwer  the  fame  before 
the  Captain  General  or  fuch  other  Officers  as  he  shall  appoint,  and  there 
fuffer  fuch  Mulcts,  Pains  and  Punishment,  as  by  the  Captain  General 
slwll  be  thought  convenient,  according  to  the  Laws  and  Articles  of  War 
in  that  cafe  made  and  provided  in  their  Majefties  Realm  of  England, 
any  thing  contained  herein,  or  any  other  Law  to  the  contrary  hereof  in 
any  wayesnotwithftanding. 

And  for  the  pacing  and  maintaining  the  faid  two  hundred  8r  twenty 
men,  and  their  proper  Officers,  Be  it  further  Ena&ed  by  the  Authority 
aforefaid,  That  a  Levy  of  two  Thoufand  eight  Hundred  and  fixty 
Pounds  currant  Money  of  this  Province,  be  laid,  affeued,  railed  and 
levied  upon  all  and  every  the  Inhabitants,  Refidcnts  and  Freeholders 
of  and  in  this  Province,  for  the  paying  and  maintaining  of  the  laid 
two  hundred  and  twenty  men,  and  their  proper  Officers,  together  with 
the  incidental  Charges  that  shall  arife  the- eon,  forfeven  Kalendary 
Months,  as  aforefaid,  and  for  no  other  ufe,  intent  or  purpofe  whatfb- 
ever.  To  be  laid,  aifefled,  raifed,  levyed  and  paid  to  their  Majefties 
Collector  and  Receiver  General  for  the  time  being,  at  their  Majefties 
Cuftem-houfe  in  the  City  of  New-Tor  k,  on  the  firft  day  of  April  next 
enfuing,  which  will  be  in  the  Year  of  our  Loid  169  j.  according  to  the 
Rates  and  Proportions  following,  that  is  to  fay, 

For  the  City  and  County  of  New-7ork,  780/.  for  the  paying  and 
maintaining  60  men,  being  their  Quota  and  Proportion  of  the  220  men 
and  Officers  aforefaid. 

For  the  County  of  fYeficheffer,  52$/.  for  the  paying  and  main  taming 
25  men,  being  their  quota  and  proportion,  as  aforefaid. 

For  the  County  of  Richmond,  i^o/.  for  the  paying  and  maintain- 
ing of  ten  men,  being  their  quota  and  proportion,  as  atorefaid. 

For  the  County  of  Suffolk,  585/.  for  the  paying  and  maintaining  4^ 
men,  being  their  quota  and  proportion,  as  aforefaid. 

For  Kjngi County,  442  /.  for  the  paying  and  maintaining  44  men, 
being  their  quota  and  proportion,  as  aforefaid. 

For  Queens  County,  572  /.  for  the  paying  8<  maintaining  54  men,  be- 
ing their  quota  and  proportion  aforefaid. 

For  the  County  of  Orange.,  26  1.  for  ch  e  paying  and  maintaining  two 
men,  being  their  quota  and  proportion,  asaiorefaid. 


And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  for  the 
better  afle01ng,raifing&  paying  the  fumoftwo  thoufa ad  eight  hundred 
and  fixty  Pounds  aforefaid,  The  Mayor  and  Aldermen  in  the  Cjtv  of 
Nm-Tork,  for  the  time  being,  and  the  Juftieee  of  the  Pea«e,  fear  the  time 
being,  for  theteyeral  and  refpectivs  Counties  afbrefeid,  for  the  feverat 
Counties  relpectively,  for  the  which  they  lhall  be  Juftices  of  die  Peace, 
do  within  forty  dayes  after  the  publication  hereof,  afTcmble  and  meet 
together  in  the  Court  Houfes  for  the  ftveral  refpective  Cityes  and 
Counties,  or  fuch  other  place  or  places  as  they  fhal!  agree  upon  among 
themfelves,  and  (hall  there  order  that  the  Afeflbrsand  Collectors  for 
the  feveral  refpective  Citys,  Towns,  Mannors  or  Liberties,  within  their 
feverat  TuriBi&iofis,  for  the  auetTing,  collecting  and  receiving  of  the 
publick  Rates,  for  the  defraying  the  pubHck  and  neceflary  Charges  of 
each  refpective  City  and  County  aforefeid,  be  the  Affeffors  end  Col- 
lectors, for  the  affefling,  collecting  or  receiving  the  fum  ox  funis  of 
Money  herein  before  mentioned,  according  to  the  Proportions  be- 
fore exprcfled,  as  tothefaid  Mayor,  Aldermen  and  Juftices  fhallfeem 
meet  and  reafonablc. 

And  forafmuch  as  there  are  feveral  Mannors  and  Jurilai&ions  within 
the  refpective  Counties  aforelaid,  who  neglect  or  do  not  cleft  annually 
or  on«e  every  year  Affeftors  or  Collelors,  whereby  the  intent  of  this 
Act  may  be  fruft rated.  Be  it  therefore  £naft«d  by  the  Authority  afore- 
faid, Thatiftherelpective  Mannors  8c  Jurildictions  within  the  feveral 
Counties  aforefaid,  fhall  refufe  or  neglocl  to  elect  AiTeff  rs  and 
Collectors,  for  affeuTng  of  their  refpective  Mannors  or  Jurifdictio  ns> 
and  for  the  collecting  the  fame,  according  to  the  intent  and  dire<&ion 
of  this  Act,  then  and  in  fuch  Cafe  the  Juftices  of  the  Peace  in  the 
Counties  where  fuch  Mannors  or  Jurifdictions  are,  are  hereby  im« 
powered  and  authorized  to  nominate  and  appoint  AucfTors  and  Col- 
lectors for  fuch  MUnrws  or  Jurifdictions  as  ftiall  neglect  or  refufe,  as 
aforefaid.  Which  Aflfeflors  and  C  ollectors,  fball,  to  all  intents  and 
purpofes  obferve  the  directions  of  this  Act,  any  thing  contained  herein 
to  the  contrary  hereof  in  any  ways  notwkhftanding. 

And  be  it  further  unaeted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  trie 
(aid  Mayors,  Aldermen  and  Jufttce*  of  rhe  Peace  for  the  relpeetive 
Cities,  Counties,  Mannors  and  J uri (dictions,  have,  and  fhall  have 
Power  and  Authority,  by  virtue  of  this  Act,  ^achotthem  by  himfelf 
to  aduinifter  an  Oath  to  the  faid  ArTcffors,  Well  ami  ttnly,  t$t**lly% 
impartially,  and  in  due  Proportion  ou  tt  /ball  appear  to  them,  actor  ding  to 
their  be  ft  Under (landing,  toajfefiand  rate  the  Inhabitants,  Redden  t<  and 
Free-holders  of  the  refteciive  places  for  which  they  (ball  kchofen  Ajejfors* 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  if  any 
Perfon  or  Perfons,  who  fhall  be  chofen  A0efsors  or  Collectors,  (hall 
dony,  neglctt,  or  unequally  and  partially  affefs,  or  rofuic  to  make 


fuch  AfleTment  as  by  this  Actb  required,  or /hall  deny,  neglect,  or 
refufe  to  collect  any  fum  or  Turns  of  Money,  in  form  before  mentioned 
affeflcd,  that  then  and  in  fuch cafe  it  fhalland  may  bclavfullfor  any 
two  of  their  Majefties  Juftiees  of  the  Peace  of  the  Cities  and  Counties 
where  fuch  Offen dors  (hall  happen  to  dwell  or  refute,  and  who  by 
virtue  of  this  Act  are  required  and  im powered  to  do  die  fame,  by 
Warrant  under  their  Hands  and  Seals  to  cammit  fuch  AfleCfors  or 
Collectors,  fo  denying,  neglecting,  or  unequally  and  partially  a^effa»g, 
orrefufing  to  collect,  as  aforefaid,  to  the  common  Goal,  there  to 
remain  without  Bail  or  Mainprife  till  be  or  they  fhall  make  Fine  or 
Ranfom  to  their  Majeftics  for  fuch  Contempt  as  aforefaid. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid.  That  if  any 
Perfon  or  Perfons,  of  what  Degree  or  Quality  foever  he  or  they  be 
within  this  Province,  who  fhall  be  aflefled  or  rared  any  fum  or  futns 
of  Money,  by  virtue  of  this  Act  toberaifed  and  levied,  frail  deny, 
refufe  or  delay  to  pay  and  fatisfie  the  fame,  that  then  it  fhall  and  may 
be  law  full  for  any  fuch  Collector,  by  virtue  of  a  Warrant  under  the 
Hand  8c  Seal  of  any  of  the  Juftiees  for  the  City  and  County  where  fuch 
OfFendors  fhall  dwell  or  refide,  who,  by  virtue  of  this  Act  are  required 
and  authorized  to  grant  and  ifllie  forth  fuch  Warrant,  to  levy  the  fame, 
by  diftrefs  and  falc  of  fuch  Perfoa  or  Perfons  Goods  and  Chattels, 
returning  the  Over-plus,  if  any  be,  to  the  Owners,  the  fum  aOeflcd 
and  Charges  of  Diftrefs  and  Sale  being  fir  ft  deducted. 

Andalfo,  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That 
if  any  Mayor,  Alderman  or  Juftice  of  the  Peace  within  this  Province* 
who  are  hereby  required,  irnpowered  and  authorized  to  take  effectual 
care,  that  this  A£l  and  every  Article  and  Claufe  therein  be  duely 
executed  according  to  the  true  intent  thereof,  /hall  deny,  refufe;, 
neglect  or  delay  to  do,  perform,  fullfill  and  execute  all  or  every  or  any 
of  the  Duties,  Powers  and  Authorities  by  this  A&  required  and 
irnpowered,  by  him  or  them  to  be  done,  performed,  fullfilled  ami 
executed,  and  fhall  thereof  be  convi&cd  before  his  Exce'leney  the 
Captain  General  andConncil,  or  before  any  of  their  Majefties  Courts 
of  Record  within  this  Province,  he  or  they -hall  lurTer  fuch  pain  by 
Fine  or  Imprifonment,  as  by  the  Difcretion  of  the  Paid  Governour  and 
Captain  General  and  Council,  and  the  Juftiees  of  the  laid  Courts  fhal! 
be  adjudged. 

And  be  it  further  Ena&ed  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  Thar  if  any 
Aclion,  Bill,  Plaint  or  Information  fhall  be  brought,  moved  or  prefented 
at  anytime  hereafter  againft  any  Perfon  or  Perfons,  for  any  matter, 
caufe  or  thing  done  or  acled  in  purfuanccor  execution  of  this  Ad,  fuch 
Perfon  or  PerTons  fo  fued  or  profecuted  in  any  Court  whatfoever,  fhal! 
ana  may  plead  the  general  IfTue,  Not  Guilty,  and  give  this  Acl  and  the 
fpecial  matter  in  Evidence;  and  if  the  Plantiff  or  Profecutor  fhall  be 
aon-fuited,  or  forbear  further  Profecution,  or  fuffer  Difcontinuance  or 

Vcrdid 


Verdift  to  pafs  againft  him,  the  Defendant  or  Defendants  fhall  have 
tribfeCofts,  for  which  they  (hall  have  like  Remedy,  as  in  cafe  where 
Cods  by  Law  are  given  to  Defendants.  Provided  alwayes,  That  no 
Mayor,  Aldermen  or  fuftices  of  the  Peace  fhall  be  troubled,  fued,  pro- 
fecured  or  molefted  for  any  omiflion,  offence,  or  ncgleft,  by  virtue  ©£ 
this  Aft,  bat  within  thefpace  of  one  year  after  fuch  omiffion  offence 
ornegleft,  and  not  at  any  time  thereafter,  any  thing  herein  sontained 
to  the  contrary  hereof  in  any  wife  not  with  ft  anding. 

Alwayes  provided,  and  be  it  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid, 
That  the  feveral  Collectors  of  each  refpettive  City  and  County,  as 
aforefaid,  fhall  have  the  liberty  to  pay  the  feveral  and  refpe&ive  fums 
affefled,asaforefaid,  at  the  day  aforementioned,  in  currant  Silver  Money, 
at  Nerv-Tork,  or  for  want  thereof  in  good  fuffieieat  and  merchantable 
Provifions  at  the  Rates  and  Prices  hereafter  fpecified  and  exprefled, 
to  wit,  good  and  merchantable  Pork  at  the  Rate  of  frifty  Shillings  per 
Barrel,  the  Barrel  well  Re-packed  by  thefworn  Packer  of  A/ew-Terk,ztid 
the  Barrel  containing  thirty  one  Gallons  and  half  Wimhefter  Meafure, 
at  leaft.  B^ef  at  the  Rate  of  thirty  two  Shillings  and  fix  Pence  pew 
Barrel,  well  re-packed  by  thefworn  Packer  of  Ne»-Tork  aforelaid,  the 
Barrel  to  contain  thirty  one  Gallons  and  half  Wi»clujkr  Meafure,  at 
Ieaft.  Good  merchantable  Winter  Wheat  at  four  Shillings  per  Buftejl 
Tryed-Tallow  at  four  Pence  half  Penny  per  Pound. 


An  Aft  fortheraifing  and  paying  of  Eighty  Men  in 
Ulfter  and  Dutches  County,  to  be  imployed  for 
the  Re-inforcingand Security  of  Albany,  from  the 
i^th  Day  of  December  next,  to  the  fii  jl  of  'March 
then  next  enfuing. 

WHereas  it  is  convenient  jrhat  tke  County  of  1)1  fer  and  Dutches 
County  fbould  be  cxcuHd  from  their  Quota's  of  joo  Men, 
Gnce  they  are  to  provide  eighty  men  for  the  Re-inforcement  of  Albany  in 
the  time  of  the  moft  eminent  danger,  Be  it  Emfted  by  the  Governour 
and  Council,  and  Reprcfentatives  convened  in  General  AtTembly,  and 
by  the  Authority  of  .he  lame,  That  the  Governour  do  ilTue  out  his 
Warrant  under  his  .Seal  to  the  Military  Officers  of  Vlfier  and  Dutches 
County,  ro  levy  eighty  effective  Men,  with  their  Arms  to  be  perempto* 
rily  at  Albmy  on  the  1 5th  day  of  December  next,  and  there  to  continue 
and  remain  for  the  Re-mforcement,  Security  and  Defence  of  the  Fron- 
teers  there,  until  che  firfl:  day  of  March  then  next  following  And  alio 
that  the  faid  Captain  General  would  form  the  (aid  Number  of  eighty 
effe&ive  men  into  fuch  Companies  as  he  fhall  think  convenient,  and  to 

P  Con> 


[  5«  1 

Commiffionateand  appoint  fb  many  Officers  over  thcin  as  he  fhall  think 
needful  in  the  faid  County. 

Andbeit  further  EnaGed  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  the  faid 
Counties  of  TJ/Afer  and  Dutches  County  fhall  at  their  own  proper  Coft  and 
Charge  well  and  futficiently  provide,  that  the  faid  eighty  effective  men 
be  well  fupplyed  with  good  and  wholfora  Provifionsof  Beer,  tfread  and 
Meat,  an!  Ammunition,  during  rhe  time  thar  thev  fhall  be  imploytd 
in  the  fervice aforefaid,  andalfo  take  effectual  care  that  all  and  every  of 
the  faid  effective  Men  be  wellpaid,according  to  the  Kings  eftablifhrnent 
after  the  expiration  of  the  faid  Service ;  and  likewife,  thar  they  fhall 
pay  and  (atisfie  fuch  Officersas  fhall  be  Commiffionated  and  appointed 
over  them,  accordingto  the  Kings  eftabliibment  aforelaid. 

Andbeit  further  Ena&ed  by  thz  Authority  aforefaid,  That  if  any 
Officer,  Civil  or  Military,  within  the  faid  County,  fhall  delay,  neglect 
or  refufe  to  perform  and  execute  th^  leveral  and  refpective  Articles  and 
Claufesof  this  A&,  accordingto  the  true  intent  and  meaning  thert  of 
heorthey  fonegledmg,  refufing  or  delaying,  0>all  be  lyable  to  fuch 
Penalties  rcfpectively ,  as  are  in  cafe  of  fuch  refulal,  neglccl  or  delay 
provided  in  the  other  &ofthis  prefent  Seflions,  entituled,  AnAcl  for 
ruftng  and  fAytng  two  hundnd  and  twenty  Men^  &c. 


Ads  piflTed  in  rhe  fifth  Seffions  of  Ge- 
neral Aflembly;  begun  in  the  City  of  New-Tor^ 
the  <i\th  of  October^  1692. 


Acl  fo*- eftablishing  a  Revenue  upon  the  r  May  flies, 
and  for  defraying  the  public  k  and  necejfarj  Charges 
of  the  Government. 

THe  Reprefentatires  of  their  Majefties  Frovince  of  ATt*-Tork,  con- 
vened in  General  ^flembly,  taking  into  their  Confiderauon  that 
the  <*c"trnade  tor  eftablifhtng  a  Revenue  for  the  defraying  the  publick 
Charges  of  the  Piovinee,  doth  expire  and  terminate,  according  to  the 
Limitations  in  the  faid  Aft  made  and  provided,  on  the  eighteenth  day 
of  Ms/next.  And  they  being i'kewite  fcnfiSle  of  thegreat  and  urgent 
occafioRs  which  do  daily  prefs  the  r  Majefties  to  an  extraordinary 
iixpence  for  the  Defence  of  this  their  Prov  ince  and  Dominion,  againlt 
the  Defigns  and  Invafions  of  the  common  Ensrny  :  And  £n  ding  it  alto 

aectflary 


C  59  1 

necelTary  that  in  this  time  of  !b great  and  emitent  Danger,  that  their 
Maieities  Government  over  this  Province  Ihould  be  honourably  fpp- 
poned  and  maintained,  They,  inmoit  Thankful  Acknow  ledgment  of 
their  Mijsfties  tender  care  of  the  Wdllfarc  of  their-  Subjects  in  this 
Province,  havechearfully  and  unanimouGy*  for  the  purpofc  aforefard, 
given  and  granted,  and  do  hereby  give  and  grant  to  their  M^fties,  the 
leveral  Race*  and  Djties  of  Excite  hereinafter  mentioned,  and  do  mod 
humbly  befcechthar,  it  may  e  Eaa&ed,  And  Be  it  therefore  Enacted 
by  die  G~>vernour  and  Council,  and  Reprefencatives  now  met  in  Ge- 
neral A<T:iTib!y,  and  by  the  Authority  of  the  fame,  thatfromand  after 
the  iZtk  f>iy  of  A/^ncxt,  which  fhall  be  in  the  Year  of  our  Lord  169$. 
There  fh&ll  be  throughout  this  their  Majeftics  Province  of  Nev-lorb 
andche  Territories  depending  thereon  in  America,  Riifed,  Levyed, 
Collected,  and  '^aid,  for  the  pur^ofeand  intent  atorefaid,  duting  the 
fpace  and  term  of  Two  Years,  from  the  eighteenth  Day  of  Mxf  arore- 
uud,  and  no  longer,  the  Rates  and  Duties  of  txcife  herein  after  men- 
tioned, in  manner  and  form  rollo  wing,  that  is  to  fay, 

Fpr  every  Gallon  of  Rom,  Brandy  and  Di (tilled  Liquors  that  fhali 
be  Imported  into  this  Province  and  Dependencies  aforefaid,  thefcim 
of  Four  Pence  currant  Money  of  this  Province 

And  for  every  P.pe  of  Madra,  Matmfey,  FyaJl,  St  Georges,  Pifada, 
C*»*rfr  Malltgo,  Sherry,  and  all  ortsoi Sweet  Wines,  the  Sum  ot  Forty 
Shillings  currant  Money  aforefaid.  And  fo  in  proportion  for  all  greater 
and  fmaHer  Quantities  Imported  as  atorefaid. 

And  for  every  hfoglhead  of  Rad,  White  and  Rhenifn  Wines,  the 
Sum  of  Twenty  Shillings  currant  vloney  atorefaid.  And  fo  in  propor- 
tion for  all  greacer  and  final  er  Quantities,  Imported  afore(aid. 

And  upon  all  other  Merchand  ze  Imported  into  this  Province  and 
Dependencies  aforefaid,  the  Sum  of  Forry  Shillings  currant  Money 
aforefaid,  for  every  Hundred  Pound  prime  Coft,  except  thefe  hereafter 
fpecified,    fvrz.)  Salt,  Brick,  Pantyle,  Coals.  Ftjh,  Sugar,  Malojfcr, 
Cotton  Wool,  Grnger,  Logvood,  Braz  lletfo,  Fuftick,  0/  any  other  for  t  of 
Dying  Wood,  Wcf  India  Hyde s.  Tobacco.  Rull on,  Plate,  Cacco.  Pvrk, 
Oyl  Tar,  Flax,  Soap,  Candles  Tallow,  Cheefc,  Bttttr,  Beef,  Wbalchne 
Hops,  JftUs,  Pears,  Sidtr,  Fire-Wood,  Planks,  Boards,  Pleltry,  Beaver 
Sbetps  Wool  Onions,  Drcffed  and  UndrefTcd  Deer  Skins,  Honey, 
Was,  Bay  Wax,  Indian  Com,  Wheat,  Barky,  Rye  Peafe,  or  any  Of  her 
fort  of  Gran,  or  any  other  thing  of  the  Growth  and  Production  of  our 
NcighbuuriJg  Collonies  and  Plantations  in  Amtuca. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  A  uthortty  aforefaid,  That  there  b* 
alfo  given  and  granted  unto  their  (aid  Maiefties,ror  the  intent  aforefe.d 
upon  al  Merchandize,  a  >mmonly  called  by  the  Name  of  Indtan  Goods' 

w?jffi^'  S?"0ack  £iankets'  M,aim>  half  ™cks.  Wool*.  SxkW 
White  Qzenburgs,  Kettles,  Harthets,  Hoes,  Red  UaTv3 

Cotten,  Red  Kerfies,  Knives,  Indian  kbSflif  ^'otl^Tnd^ 

Goods,  die  sum  of  hve  Pounds  currant  Money  aforefaid,  for  em? 

hundred 


C  60  ] 

hundred  Pound  orime  Coft,  which  fha.ll  be  imported  into  this  Province 
and  Dependencies  aforefaid,  over  and  above  the  forty  Shillings  for  every 
hundred  Pounds  prime  Coft  before  gven  and  granted  to  rhcir  Ma/efties 
by  this  prefent  Acl:.  And  that  the  value  of  the  prime  Coft  faall  be  at  the 
Rates  hereafter  mentioned,  Vtz» 

Indian  DufBlls  to  be  valued  at  Two  Shillings  and  4  pence  per  Y  ard. 

Indian  Strouds,  half  a  piece  four  Pounds,  a  whol*  piece  eight  Pounds* 

Indian  Blankets,  each  piece  four  Pounds. 

Indian  plain  Cotten,  eighten  Pence  per  Yard. 

Half  Thicks,  two  Shillings  and  two  Peace  per  Yard. 

Indian  white  Ozenburgs,  the  English  ell,  eight  Pence. 

Indian  Kettles,  under  eight  Gallons,  fix  Pounds  per  hundred  weight. 

Indian  Hatchets,  twelve  Shillings  per  Dozen. 

Indian  Hoes,  nvclrc  Shillings  per  Dozen. 

Red  Lead,  twenty  Shillings  per  Hundred  weight. 

Vermilioa,  four  Shillings  per  f  ound. 

Cotten,  fixtten  Pence  per  Yard. 

Red  Kerfey,  two  Shillings  fix  Pence  per  Yard. 

Knives,  three  Shillings  per  Dozen. 

Indian  Shirts,  twenty  Shillings  per  Dozen. 

Indian  Drawing  Knives,  LooKing-GlaiTes,  Indian  Wooden  Combs, 
Indian  Beeds,  Tobacco  in  Rolls,  Indian  Bells,  Sciflars,  Jews  Harps*, 
Indian  Points,  Drills,  Tobacco  Pipes,  little  painted  Boxes,  Auls,  Sword 
Blades,  Copper  Tobacco  Boxes,  Tinfcy  Lace,  Indian  Gimp  Lace, 
Needles,  Tobacco  Tongs,  Indian  Powder  Horns,  Indian  Woolen 
Stockings,  and  Iodian  Steels,  the  Sum  of  fix  Founds  currant  Money 
aforeiaid,  over  and  above  the  two  per  Cent,  aforefaid,  for  every  Hun- 
dred Pounds  value  prime  Coft. 

And  be  it  further  Enacled  by.  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  there  be 
alfo  given  and  granted  unto  tbeir  Majefties  for  the  intent  aforefaid) 
for  every  Barrel  of  Powder,  fix  Shillings, 

For  every  Hundred  Pound  of  Lead,  fix  Shillings* 

For  every  Gun,  with  or  without  a  Lock,  Six  Shillings. 

For  every  Gallon  of  Rum,  four  Pence,  currant  Money  aforefaid 
that  fhall  be  earned  up  Hudfou\  River  in  any  Veffd,  Sloop  or  Canow 
or  any  other  way  whatfoever. 

And  be  it  further  Enacled  by  the  Authority  aforefaid.  That  there  be 
alfo  given  and  granted  unto  their  faid  Majcfties,  for  the  pur pofe  afore- 
faid, the  Duties  of  Excife  upon  all  Liquors  retailed  throughout -rhe 
Provinceand  Dependenciesafcrefaid,under  the  Quantity  ot  five  Gallons, 
the  Sum  of  Twelve  Pence  currant  Money  aforefaid,  for  each  Gallon  to 
Retailed  (Beer  and  Syder  only  excepted.)    And  likewife  the  Sum  of 
Six  Shillings  for  each  Barrel  of  Beer  and  Syder  fold  by  Retail  through- 
out the  Province. 

Audit  is  further  Enacled  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  there  be 

givejs 


given  and  granted,  and  there  is  hereby  further  glveo  and  granted 
unto  their  (aid  Wajefties,  for  the  Ofe  aforefaid,  a  Rate  add  Duty  upaa 
the  Furs  and  Peltry  hereafter  mentioned,  that  (ball  be  tipor  ted  one  of 
this  Province  and  Dependent ies,  that  is  to  (ay, 

For  every  Beaver  Skin,  commonly  called  a  whole  Beaver,  the  fain  of 
Nine  Pence  currant  Moaey  aforelaicl  And  that  all  other  furs  ar  3 
Peltry  be  rated  accordingly,  that  is  to  fay, 

For  two  half  Beavers,  the  furn  of  Nine  Pence  cm? aat  Mogey  afore* 
faid. 

For  four  Laps,  Mine  Pence. 

for  three  Drillings,  Eighteen  Pence. 

For  ten  Raccons,  Nine  Pence. 

For  four  Foxes,  Nine  Fence. 

For  four  Fifhers,  Nine  Pence. 

For  five  Cats,  Nine  Pence. 

For  fix  Minks,  Nine  Peicc* 

For  one  Otter,  fix  Pcnee. 

For  two  BearSkins,  Nine  Pence. 

For  twenty  four  Musk  Rats,  Nine  Pence. 

For  ten  Matters,  Nine  Pence. 

For  every  twenty  four  Pound  of  Deer  and  Mufc  Elfins,  Nine  Petce. 
And  for  every  Ox,  Cow  and  Bull  Hide  fiaaghtered  is  the  Previa® 
and  Dependencies,  fix  Pence* 
And  all  other  Peltry  to  be  vaftted  to  a  whole  Beaver,  nine  Pence 

And  for  the  due  and  orderly  collecting  of  the  afarefaid  Rates  and 
Duties  of  Excife,  and  alio  for  preventing  of  Frauds  and  Insbezelments 
of  the  faid  i?ates  and  Duties  of  Excife,  Be  it  further  Ena&ed  by  tfa© 
Authority  aforelaid,  That  all  Ships  &  Veflels  whatfoetfcr  that  (hall  coma 
to  any  Port,  Creek  or  Harbour  within  this  Province  and  Dependencies 
to  Tirade  or  Traffick,  the  Matter,  Mate  or  Purfer  (hall  come  to  hicJv 
place  or  places  as  fhall  be  appointed  by  the  Governour  for  the  time  being* 
and  there  make  Report  of  all  fuch  parcel  or  parcels  of  .4/erchand \z® 
and  other  things,  that  he  or  thev  have  on  Board  the  (aid  Ship  or  Veffe^ 
and  alfo  declare  upon  their  Corporal  Oath,  That  he  or  they  have  so? 
broke  Bulk  finte  his  Arrival  within  this  Province,  kef  are  he  ar  they  mods 
fuch  Report  as  aforefatd. 

And  alfo,  all  Merchants  that  have  any  Gaodsor  Merchandise  oo 
Board  fuch  Ships  or  Veflels,  asaforefaid,  fhall,  at  fuch  place  or  places 
as  is  above  directed,  make  a  true  and  diftinct  Entry  of  aU  fuch  parcel 
or  parcels  of  Goods  or  Merchandize  he  hath  aboard  fuch  Ship  or  VeUel, 
according  *o  the  prime  Colt.  And  if  any  Difference  fhoald  arife  a  bo  us 
the  Value  of  the  faid  Goods,  Their  Majefties  Collector  for  the  tima 
being  is  hereby  Authorized  toadminifter  toallor  any  fuch  Perfonof 
Perfons,  making  fuch  Hnrry,  their  Corporal  Oath,  That  the  f aid  Entry 
ts  according  to  the  Invoice  or  Invoice*  fent  to  them  from  the  f  hue  or  fl<ue$ 
from  whence  fuch  Goods  or  Merchandize  dii  come. 

£  An* 


t  6a  3  , 


Andk  is  further  Eitafted  by  the  Authority  eforefaid,  That  if  any 
Mf.fter»Mate  or  Putter  of  any  Ship  orVen"el  whatever,or  any  Merchant, 
Fa&or,  or  other,  (hall,  contrary  to  thefe  Rules  above  dire&cd,  break 
BuiJf,  or  Land  any  Goods  or  Merchandize  whatfoevcr,  before  he  or 
they  make  Report  or  Entry,  and  pay  fuch  Duties  as  is  required  by 
this  Att,  then  and  in  fuch  cafe  the  Matter  of  fuch  Ship  or  Veflel  that 
fhailbrtaJt  Bulk  before  making  fuch  Report,  as  aforefaid.  ftiall  upon 
Proof  made  thereat  by  two  fumeient  and  lawful  Evidences,  forfeit  hk 
faid  Ship  or  Veflel,  with  all  her  Tackle,  tupaiture  and  Ammunition, 
one  Third  unto  their  Majefties,  .one  Third  uifco  the  Covernour,  and 
one  Third  to  the  Informer;  To  be  fued  for  in  any  Court  of  Record 
within  this  Province,  by  Bill,  Plaint  or  Information,  wherein  no 
EfToya, .fepte&ion  or  Wage  r  of  Law  fhall  be  allowed.  And  alfo.^aH 
fuch  Goods  as  fhall  be  Landed  without  Entry  made,  as  aforefaid,  fiiall 
be  in  like  manner  forfeited,  one  Third  unto  their  Majefties,  one  Third 
to  the  Governour,  and  one  Third  to  the  Informer, to  be  fued  as  aforefaid. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  al$ 
Matters  of  Ships  or  Veflels  that  are  within  this  Province,  and  do 
nor  belong  unto  the  feme,  or  any  part  thereof,  and  bound  to  any  Port 
within  or  without  this  Province,  fhall,  before  they  take  any  Mer- 
chandise above  exprefTed,  come  to  fuch  place  or  places  as  fhall  be 
appointed  for  the  colle&iag  the  Rates  and  Duties  eftablifhed  by  this  Aft, 
and  there  make  Entry  and  Report  of  their  Defign,  and  enter  into  Bond, 
tothe  value  of  One  Thoufand  Pounds,  currant  Money  of  New-Tork^ 
with  fufficient  Sureties,  That  they  fhall  not  take  on  Board,  direftly  or  indt- 
reflfy,  any  Goods  or  Merchandize,  a  fore  recited  and  expreffed,  without  fuch 
Permit  or  Certificate  from  the  Collector,  or  any  having  Authority  under  bimx 
for  the  fame.  And  if  they  do  take  on  Board  any  Goods  or  Merchandize 
afore  recited  and  exprcfTed,  contrary  tothe  true  intent  and  meaning  of 
this  Act,  then  they  fhall  forfeit  their  faid  Bond,  to  be  fued  within  three 
Months  after  fuch  Fact  committed,  or  otherwife  to  be  void,  and  of  no 
foree  and  virtue. 

And  all  Millers  of  Sh  Vs*  Sloops,  Boats,  or  any  other  VerTel  belonging 
to  this  Province  and  its  Dependencies,  fhall  once  in  the  Year  repair  to 
the  Cuftom-Houle,  or  to  other  place  or  places  that  fhall  be  appointed 
Ibf  that  purpofe,  and  there  enter  into  Bond ,  to  the  value  of  One 
Hundred  Pounds,  currant  Money  aforefaid,  That  they  (ball  not  dire&h 
Of  indirectly  take  on  Board  and  carry  away  out  of  this  Province,  any  of  the 
aforefaid  Goods  and  Merchandize ,  nit  hour  fir  ft  making  Entry  thereof,  and 
frying  fuch  Rates  and  Duties  at  are  before  red  ted  and  exprejfed.  And  if 
they  do  take  on  Board  any  of  the  aforefaid  Goods  or  Merchandize, 
twithout  making  Entry  thereof,  or  paying  the  Rates  and  Duties  afore- 
faid, then  the  faid  Bond  fhall  be  forleited. 

And  foi  the  due  and  orderly  colle&ing  of  all  Duties  of  Exeife  hereby 

given 


given  and  granted,,  Be  It  farther  Isna&ea  by  the  Authority  aTorelaid, 
That  all  Retailers  ot  Wine,  Runt,  Brandy,  or  any  Other  ft  rong  Liquors, 
within  this  Province  or  Dependencies,  fnall  upon  thefcr  pi'chafe  and 
receipt  of  all  fuoh  Liquor  or  Liqusrs  before  exjireflk  J  and  Etcifeable, 
come  to  the  Omoe  or  O dices  of  the  Excifc,  and  there,  or  withhira, 
make  Entry  of  all  fuch- Liquor  or  Liquors  as  they  (hill  buy  or  receive, 
and  pay  fuch  Duties  as  are  hereby  appointed,  within  twenty  four 
Hours/  or  at  fuch  convenient  time  as  the  Offecer  of  the  E*cifey  /hall 
appoint.    And  on  Default  thereof,  all  fuch  Liquors  as  mill  be  found 
in  any  Retailers  Houfeor  Ware-hOafc,  Celler.  or  other  pi aae  belong- 
ing unto  him  within  this  Province  or  Dependsnctes,  and  have  not  keen 
duely  entred  and  paid  the  Duties  and  Excite,  as  aforefaid,  f  hen  and  in 
fuch  cafe,  upon  the  Teftirnony  of  two  Evidences  before  any  Juftioe  of 
the  Peace  within  this  Province  and  Dependencies,  the  faid  Retailer  or 
Retailers  Co  offending  in  the  Premifes,  fhill  forfeit  all  fuch  Liquors,  anl 
shrce  times  the  value  thereof,  one  third  to  tfceir  M  ijefties,  one  third  to 
the  Governour,  and  one  third  to  the  Informer,  who  fhall  profecute  th« 
lame  before  any  Jufticeof  the  PiaGe  throughout  this  Province  and  Dj- 
pendencies,  who  are  hereby  Authorized  and  Empowered  to  hear  and 
determine  the  fame,  and  if  need  be,  to  iffje  out  their  \tfVrartt  for  the 
leizing  and  condemning  of  all  fuch  Liquor  forfeited,  as  aforefaid,  art! 
for  committing  to  Goal  all  fuch  Retailers  of  Liquors  who  hive  not 
entered  and  paid  the  D  ides  of  fixcifo  in  nuier  anrefaid,  dure  to  re- 
main without  Bail  or  Miinprize  until  they'  flail  fatisfie  an  I  mike  pay* 
mentof  three  times  the  Value  of  fuch  Liquors  feized  and  forfeited,  as 
aforefaid. 

And  be  it  furrher  Ena&ea1  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  if  any 
Pcrfon  or  Perfons  within  this  Province  and  Dependencies,  not  being 
due'y  Lifeneed,  fhall  at  any  tinve  hereafter  preiume  to  fell  by  Retail 
any  the  Liquors  aforefaid,  that  is  to  fay,  a  lefs  Qjanaty  at  onetin% 
than  five  Gallons,  the  Perfon  fo  offending  fhall  foneitanl  oay  the  fu  tt 
of  Five  Pounds  currant  M  mey  aforefaid  for  every  fuch  OF^iae,  hai  15 
thereof  convi£b  by  the  Oath  of  two  or  mxe  Evidences,  to  be  fued  as 
aforefaid  before  any  Juftice  of  the  Peace  throu|^  »ir  rhs  P;  vn.ue,  and 
to  be  employed  in  fuch  manner  and  proportion  as  aforefaid. 

Alwayes  provided,  and  it  is  the  crue  intent  an  J  meaning  of  this  4.1, 
Thn  no  Retailers  of  Liquors  under  five  Gallons,  or  any  o-harthir 
any  Liquor  or  ftron^  L;quors,  IbiM  taka  an/  fuel  Liqior  into  thiir 
Houfes,  Celler;  or  Ware  -houfes,  or  into  any  othar  place  belong  1?  Jica 
them,  in  New-Tork  and  Alhxny^  bat  by  the  hands  of  the  fvVJrn  P^rws 
under  the  Pen  ilty  aforefaid,  to  be  fued  and  reo/*rcd  fo  -  the  U  'esafo'a. 
faid,  in  manner  and  form  as  aforefaid  Alwi/os  provided,  ill  it  is 
hereby  underftood,  that  there  fhill  no  Duty  be  paid,  iur  Pj"tfsfai',s 
upon  any  Goods  or- Merchandize,  that  ar«  not  landed  wirhin  thi$ 
P.-o/ioce  and  D-  len  leacies.  A  viyes  provid-d,  Thitall  vf-'rchn.-j 
qualified  to  TiaJe  by  ttu  Acts  or  tfxvigmonand  R:gtiUcing  ;u£  ofan. 

tatisn 


tation  Trade,  eoming  into  this  Province,  or  any  part  thereof;  be  w  ell 
and  honeftly  treated  and  demeaned  for  fiich  things  as  by  this  ASt  is 
granted,  without  Oppreffion  to.  be  done  to  them,  paying  the  Duties 
aforefaid. 


An  All  fortheJLftablishing  Courts  of  Judicature  for 
the  eafe  and  benefit  of  each  refpeftive  City,  Town 
and  County  within  thk  Province. 

WHereas  the  A&  for  fettling  Courts  of  Judicature  within  this 
Province,  doth  expire  by  its  own  Limitation  in  Afrit  next. 
And  whereas  the  orderly  Regulation,  and  the  Eftablifhment  ot  Courts 
of  Jufticc  throughout  this  Province,  as  well  in  refpeftof  Time  as  Place, 
doth  tend  very  much  to  the  Honour  and  Dignity  of  the  Crown,  as  well 
as  to  the  Eafe  and  Benefit  of  the  Subjeft,  Be  it  therefore  Ena&ed  by 
the  Governour  and  Council,  and  Reprefentatives  convened  in  Genera! 
Auembly,  and  it  is  hereby  Ena&ed  and  Ordained  by  the  Authority  of 
the  feme,  That  every  Juftice  of  the  Peace  that  refides  within  any  Town 
or  County  within  this  Province,  are  hereby  fully  impowered  and  autho- 
rized to  have  Cognizance  of  all  Caufes,  Cafes  of  Debt  and  Trefpafs  to 
the  Value  of  Forty  Shillings  or  under,  which  Caufos  and  Cafes  ftiall 
be  heard,  tryed  and  finally  determined  without  a  Jury,  by  every  Juftice 
of  the  Peace  that  refides  within  any  Town  or  County  within  this 
Province,  &c.  he  taking  unto  his  Affiftance,  at  the  time  of  his  hearing 
and  determining  fuch  Caufes  or  Cafes  of  Debt  and  Trefpafs  to  the  value 
of  Forty  Shilliags  or  under,  one  of  the  Free-holders  of  the  Town  and 
Place  where  the  Caufe  of  Adtion  doth  arife :  The  procefs  of  Warning 
lhall  be  by  a  Summons  under  the  Hand  of  the  Juftice,  directed  to  the 
Conftablc  of  the  Town  or  Precincl,  or  any  deputed  by  him  where  the 
the  Parry  complained  againft  doth  live ;  which  Summons  being  Per  ton- 
ally ferved,  or  left  at  the  Defendants  Houfe  two  dayes  before  the  Day 
of  Hearing  of  the  Plaint,  lhall  be  fufficient  Authority  to  and  lor  the  fa  id 
Juftice,  affifted  with  one  of  the  Free- holders,  as  aforefaid,  to  proceed 
on  fuch  Caufe  and  Caufes,  and  determine  the  fame  in  the  Defendants 
abfence,  and  to  grant  Execution  thereupon  againft  the  Defendants 
Perfon,  or  for  want  thereof,  his  Eftate,  which  the  Conftable  of  the 
Town  or  Precintl:,  or  his  Deputy,  lhall  and  may  ferve.  Alwajes 
provided,  and  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That 
if  the  PlantifF  or  Defendant  fhall  defirc  a  Jury,  it  {hall  be  allowed,  but 
at  the  proper  Coft  and  Charges  of  theferfon  defiringthe  fame. 

And  for  ths  encreafe  of  Virtue  and  the  difcouraging  of  Evil-Doers, 
Be  it  further  Bna&ed  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  there  fhall  be 
held  and  kept  in  every  rtfpe&ive  City  &  County  within  this  Province, 

ar 


at  the  times  and  places  hereafter  named  and  exprefled,  aCottrrof  5e£ 
fions  of  the  Peace,  that  is  to  fay, 

Tor  the  City  and  County  of  Neif-Tork  aad  Orange  County,  at  the 
City  Hall  of  the  faid  City,  four  General  Quarter-Seflions  of  the  Pensc 
annually,  and  every  Year,  upon  the  firft  Tuefday  of  May,  the  firft  Tuefdif 
in  Auguft,  the  ftrn  Tuefday  in  November^  and  the  firft  TuefAty  \(i 
February. 

For  the  City  and  County  of  Albany,  three  General  Seflions  of  the 
Peace,  at  the  City  Hall  of  the  (aid  City  annually,  and  every  Yeai,  o  i 
the  firft  Tuefday  in  June,  on  the  faftTuefay  inQMer,  and  on  the  firft 
Toe  flat  of  February. 

And  for  the  County  of  fYeftchefter,  two  General  Seflions  of,  the  Peace 
annually,  and  every  Year  at  rVefkbe/ter9ondie  firft  Tuefday  til^m^  and 
on  the  firft  Tuefday  of  December. 

And  for  the  County  of  l>/^<r  and  Ditches  County,  two  Genera! 
Seflions  of  the  Peace  annually,  and  every  Yeac  at  Kj*£p**>  on  the  firft 
Jueflay  of  March,  and  the  firft  Tuefday  of  September. 

And  for  the  County  of  Richmond,  two  General  Semens  of  the  Peace 
annually,  and  every  Year  at  the  Court  Houfe  in  the  faid  Connty,oo  the 
faftTue.day  in  March,  and  the  firft  Tuefday  of  September. 

And  lor  Kings  County,  two  General  SsfRons  of  the  Peace  annually, 
and  every  Year  at  Ilatbnfh,  on  thclecond  Tuefday  tiiMay,  and  on  tke 
iecond  Tuefday  of  November. 

And  for  Queens  County,  two  General  Seflions  of  the  Peace  ammally, 
and  every  Yew  at  Jamaica,  on  the  firft  Tuefday  in  May,  and  onx lie  third 
Tuefday  of  September. 

And  for  Suffolk  County,  two  General  Seflions  of  the  Peace  annually, 
arid  every  Year,  on  the  laft  Tuefday  in  March  at  Southampton,  and  on  the 
laft  Tuefday  of  September  at  Southold.  Which  General  Seflions  of  the 
Peace  in  eacli  refpe&ive  City  and  County  aforelaid.  fha!l  only  hold  and 
continue  for  the  {pace  and  timeof  two  dayes,  and  no  longer. 

And  for  the  more  Regular  and  Beneficial  Diftribution  of  Juftioo  to 
the  Inhabitants  of  each  refpedrive  County  aforsfaid,  Be  it  further 
"Ena&ed  by  the  Authority  aforelaid,That  there  fhall  be  kept  and  hodden 
a  Court  of  Common  Pleas  in  each  refpecVive  County  aforefaid,  at  the 
Times  and  Places  hereafter  named  and  mentioned,  That  is  to  fay,  nt 
fuch  Places  in  each  .efpect.ive  Count/,  as  the  faid  General  Seffions  of 
the  Peace  are  to  be  kept,  and  to  begin  the  next  day  after  the  Seflions 
terminate,  and  then  only  to  hold  and  continue  for  thefpace  and  time 
of  Two  Dftyes  after,  and  no  longer.  And  that  there  be  a  Judge, 
aflifted  with  three  Juftices  of  the  Peace  in  each  refpective  County  ap- 
pointed and  cornmitfionated  to  hold  the  fame  Court  of  Pleas,  three 
whereof  to  be  a  Quorum.  And  that  the  (everal  and  refpeftive  Courts 
of  PleasTiereby  tftabhflied,  fhall  have  Power  and  Jurifdi&ion  to  Hear, 
Try,  and  finaWy  determine  all  Actions  orCaufeof  Anions,  and  all 
Matters  and  Things  and  Caufes  try  able  at  the  Common  Law,  of  what 
Nature  or  Kind  whatfoever;  fo  that  the  Action  or  Caufe  of  Aclion, 

R  the 


C  6<5  1 

the  Matter,  Thing  and  Caufe  Triable,  *od  the  Natuit  and  Kind 
thereof  doth  not  relate  to  or  concern  Titles  of  Land.  Provided  always, 
and  it  is  hereby  Enacted,  That  there  ihall  not  be  any  ppeaicr  Re- 
movalby  HakedsCorpM^  of  any  Perfon,  or  of  any  Adion  oarSuitj,  or  of 
anyjudgmentor  Execution,  that  fhall  be  determined  in  the  faid  Courts 
of  Pleas,  to  the  Value  of  Twenty  Pounds  or  under,  any  thing  contained 
herein  to  the  contrary  hereof  in  any  wares  notvvitjiitanding. 

And  it  is  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  Tffiat  th* 
Courts  of  Mayors  and  Aldermen  of  the  respective  Cities  of  Nim-Tork 
and  Albany,  (hall  have  in  each  of  their  refpective  Cities  the  Powers 
and  Authorities  to  Hear,  Try  and  finally  to  Determine  ail  fudi  Suits 
and  Actions  of  their  Corporations,  as  is  commonly  cognizable  be- 
fore them.  From  whieh  final  Determination  there  fhall  not  be  aoy 
Appeal  or  Removal  by  Habeas  Cerpus,  of  any  Perfon,  or  of  any  A&ioa 
or  Suit,  or  of  any  Judgment  or  Execution  to  the  value  of  Twenty 
Pounds  or  under,  anything  herein  contained  to  the  contrary  hereof 
in  any  wayes  notwithstanding.  To  whieh  relpeclive  Courts  of  Com- 
mon r leas  there  (hall  belong,  and  be  appointed  and  commi&onated  for 
that  purpofe,  one  Clark  of  the  Court,  to  draw,  enter  and  keep  the 
Records,  Declarations,  Pleas  and  Judgments,  there  to  be  had  and 
made ;  and  one  Marfhal  or  Cry  er  of  the  Court,  to  call  the  Jurors,  a&d 
proclaim  the  Commands  and  Orders  of  die  Court.  And  for  the  more 
regular  proceedings  in  the-  faid  Court,  all  Procefs  and  Writs,  of  what 
Nature  fbever,  for  the  comroaad  of  Perfbns  to  appear,  and  to  execute 
the  Judgments  and  Executions  of  the  refpective  Courts  aforefaid,  fhall 
be  directed  to  the  refpective  Sheriffs  of  each  County  aforefaid,  and 
executed  by  them,  their  Under-ShcriS  or  Deputy  or  Deputies.  And 
all  Procefs  and  Writs  for  A&ioos  betwixt  party  and  party  in  the  faid 
Court,  fhall  iiTue  out  of  the  Office  of  each  refpective  Clark  of  each 
refpective  Court,  figned,  Per  Curiam.  Provided  alwayes, That  nothing 
herein  contained  fhall  be  taken  or  conftrued  to  take  away  the  Prm- 
ledge  of  the  Town  of  KjngHon  in  the  County  of  Vljter,  for  the  hearing 
ahddeterminingall  Actions  and  Caufcof  Actions  arifing  within  the  Li- 
bertiesof  the  faid  Town,  to  the  value  of  five  Pounds  &-  under,  any  thing 
contained  herein  to  theeontrary  hereof  in  any  ways  notwithfianding. 

And  that  all  their  Majeftics  Subje&s  inhabiting  within  this  Province 
may  have  all  the  good,  proper*  juft,  eafie  and  beneficial  wayes  for  the 
fecuring  and  recovering  their  juft  Rights  and  Demands  within  the 
fame,  Beit  further  Enacted,  and  it  is  hereby  further  Enacted  and  Or- 
dained by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  there  fhall  be  at  New-Tork  a 
Supream  Court  of  Judicature,  the  which  fhall  eonfift  of  five  Juflices, 
which  fhall  be  appointed  and  commiffionated  for  that  purpofe,  two 
whereof,  together  with  ope  chief  Jufticc,  to  be  a  Quorum.  Which 
Supream  Court  are  hereby  fully  impowcredto  have  Cognizance  all  of 
Pleas  ,Civil,Criminal  and  Mhct,as  fully  and  amply  to  all  intents  and  pur- 
pofes  whatfo  ever,  as  the  Courts  of  Kj,v*s  Bexch,  Common  Pleas  and 

Exchequer 


Ex:kftor  within  their  Maiefties  Kingdom  of  England,  have  or  ought  to 
haye.  In  and  to  which  Supream  Court  all  aad  cverv  Perfon  and 
P«tfoas  vvhatfocver,  fball  or  may,  if  they  fha II  fee  meet,  commence  or 
remove  any  Action  ox  Suir,  the  Debt  or  Damage  laidtin  Rich  Action  or 
Suit  being  upwards  of  Twenty  Ponnds,  and  not  other  wife ;  or  fhall  or 
may,  by  Warrant  ox  Certiorarie,  remove  out  of  any  of  the  refpc£hve 
Courts  of  Mayor  and  Aldermen,  Seffions  of  the  Peace  and  Common 
Pleas,  any  Judgment,  Information  or  Indictment  there  had  and  de- 
pending :  Provided  alwayes,  that  the  Judgment  removed  be  upwards 
of  the  Valve  of  Twenty  Pounds.  Out  of  the  Office  of  w  hich 
Supfeam  Court  at  Nav-Tork,  afore  faid,  all  Procefs  fhall  uTue  out  uuder 
the  Teft  of  the  Chief  Juftice  of  tbefaid  Court ;  and  to  which  Office  all 
Returns  fhall  be  made.  Which  Supream  Court  (hail  be  heiden  ar  fach 
Times  and  Places  as  herein  after  is  limitced  appointed  : 

For  die  City  and  County  of  New-Tork,  and  County  of  Orange,  on  the 
fir  ft  Tuefday  in  April,  and  on  the  firft  Tuefday  in  Q&okr,  annually  and 
every  Year. 

For  the  City  and  County  of  Albany,  the  firft  Tuefday  in  May. 

For  Vljler  and  Dutches  County,  the  third  Tuefday  in  May. 

For  the  County  of  fVeflcheJler,  the  laft  Tuefday  in  June* 

For  King*  County ;  the  firft  Tuefday  in  Auguft. 

For  Queers  County,  thefecond  Tuefday  in  Auguft, 

For  the  County  of  Suffolk,  the  third  Tuefday  in  Auguft. 

And  for  the  County  ot  Richmond,  the  fecond  Tuefday  o£Jum* 

And  be  it  further  Ena&edby  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  all  and 
every  of  the  Jufticcs  or  Judges  of  the  fcveral  Courts  afore- mentioned, 
be,  and  are  hereby  fufficienrly  impowered  to  make,  ordain  and  eftabiifh 
all  fuch  Rules  and  Orders,  for  the  mora  Regular  pra&iftng  and  pro- 
seeding  in  their  faid  Courts,  as  fully  And  amply,  to  all  intents  and 
porpofesubatfoever,  as  all  or  any  of  the  Judges  of  the  leveral  Counts 
or  tlie  K^gs  Bench,  Common  Pleat  and  Exchequor  in  England  legally  do. 

Provided  alwayes,-  and  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  afore- 
faid,  That  no  Perfons  Right  or  Property  fhall  be  by  any  of  the  aforefaid 
Courts  determined,  except  where  matters  ot  Fad  are  either  a c&now- 
(edged  by  the  Parties,  01  Jadgment  be  acknowledged,  or  pafTeth  by 
the  Defendants  Fault,  for  want  of  Plea  or  \  rawer,  unlefs  the  I  act  be 
found  by  the  Verdict  of  Twelve  Men  of  the  Neighbeurnood,  as  it 
ought  to  be  done  by  the  Law. 

And  he  it  further  EnaBed  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  one  of 
toejufticesofthe  faid  Supream  Court  ,commifTionated  asaforefatd,  fhall 
once  in  every  Year,  at  theafor  efaid  Times  and  Places,  in  each  refpeOive 
County  aforefaid,  go  the  Circuit ,  and  at  theplaces  and  times  aforefaid, 
there  hold  the  Supream  Court  being  then  affiled  by  two  or  more  of  the 
Juftices  ot  tnc  Peace  oF  the  fever al  refpectwe  Copies  where  the  faid 
Supream  Court  is  to  be  hidden,  and  fhall  there  hear  and  determine  all 

Procefs 


C  68  ] 

Procefs  and  Pleas  there  depending  and  uTued,  as  afbrefaid.  Aiwuyes 
provided,  That  infueh  County  where  there  is  no  Procefs  iffued  or 
Pleas  depending,  That  the  Juftice  fhall  not  be  then  obHged  to  go  the 
Circuit  to  the  laid  County,  any  thing  contained  herein  to  the  contrary 
hereof  in any  waycs  notwithstanding.  Ahvaycs  provided,  theSe/Tions 
of  the  faid  Supream  Cours  ihall  notcoutlnue  nor  hold  longer  at  Ntm* 
Tork  than  five  da  yes,  &  at  the  other  relpeclive  places  in  each  refpedivc 
County,  than  two  day  es,  and  no  longer. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefard,  That  there 
lhall  bea  Co$tr$  ofChsacery  within  this  Province,  which  laid  Court  fhal! 
have  Power  to  hear  and  determine  ail  Matter  -  of  Equity,  and  fhall  be 
efteemed  and  accounted  The  High  Court  of  Qhdnctry  of  this  Province. 

And  be  it  further  Ena£ed  by  the  Authority  afbrefaid,  That  the  <5o- 
vernour  and  Council  be  the  faid  High  Court  of  Chancery,  and  hold  and 
beep  the  faid  Court  ;  And  that  the  Governcur  may  depute,  nominate 
and  appoint  in  his  ftead  a  Chancellor,  and  be  alTifted  with  fuch  other 
Perfonsof  the  Council  as  Iball  by  him  be  thought  fit  and  convenient, 
together  with  all  necefTary  Officers,  Clarks  and  Regifiers,  astothefiid 
High  Court  of  Chanocry  are  needful. 

Provided  alway  es,  and  it  is  hereby  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority 
aforefaid,  That  any  Free-holder,  Planter,  Inhabitant  or  Sojourner 
within  this  Province  may  have  liberty ,  if  he  or  they  lee  meet,  to  make 
his  or  their  Appeal  or  AppeiMront  any  Judgment  obtained  againft  him 
or  them,  in  cafe  of  Error  in  the  feveral  Courts  aforefaid,  in  fuch  manner 
and  form  as  is  hereafter  expreffed,  Thar  is  to  lay,  From  the  Courts  of 
Mayor  and  Aldermen,  and  Courts  of  Common  pleas,  totheSupreati? 
Court,  for  any  Judgment  above  the  Value  of  Twenty  Pounds.  And 
from  the  Supream  Court  at  Ncw-Torkt  to  the  Governour  and  Council, 
for  any  Judgment  above  the  value  of  One  Hundred  Pounds.  And  from 
the  Governour  and  Council,  to  Their  Majefties  in  Council,  for  any 
Decree  or  Judgment  above  the  Value  of  Three  Hundred  Pounds,  as  in 
their  Majefties  Letters  Patents  to  his  Excellency  doth  and  may  more 
ftilly  appear.  Alwayes  provide  J,  That  the  Party  cr  Parties  fo  appeal- 
ing, fliall  firft  pay  all  Cofts  offudi  Judgment  or  Decree  from  whicn  the 
Appeal  arifeth,  andcntcrintoRetognizance,  with  two  fufficicnt  Sure- 
ties, for  double  the  value  of  the  Debt,  Matter  or  Thing  recovered  or 
obtained  by  Judgment  or  Decree  againft  him  or  them,  to  the  faid  CoBrt 
from  which  they  appeal,  That  they  mil  profecute  the  fad  Appeal  or  Appeals 
with  EfeiJ,  and  mate  Return  thereof  mthw  twelve  Months  after  the  fdid 
Appcator  Appeals  here  made.  And  if  default  happen  thereon,  then  Exe- 
cution to  iflue  outjypon  the  Judgment^gainft  the  Party  or  their  Snret  ies 
in  conrfe,  without  any  Stmfums.  Provided  alwayes,  That  the  efta* 
bhfhibgoTthefe  Courts  fhall  not  be orrcrnt in/longer  in  force  than  for 
the  time  and  fbace  of  two  Years  from  and  afrer  the  Expiration  of  the 
former  A&  before- mentioned,  and  no  longer- 


C  69  j 


JnAff  for  fettling  Fairs  and  Markets  in  each  respec- 
tive City  and  County  throughout  this  'Province. 

WHereas  great  Inconveniency  doth  arife  unto  thelnhabiranr  of 
the  Province  for  want  of  certain  Market  da  yes  in  each  re  Rec- 
eive Gity  and  County  throughout  the  fame,  &  the  Trade  of ;  he  Pr ovinc$ 
is  likewife  very  much  difeouraged  for  want  thereof,  as  well  as  for  the 
want  of  publick  Fairs  in  eaeh  relp«£tive  City  and  County,  to  be  held  and 
kept  at  leaft  once  ia  every  Year.  Per  Remedy  whereof,  and  that 
Trade  and  Commerce  may  be  the  better  encouraged  and  propagated,  for 
the  good  and  weal  of  all  the  Inhabitants  aforefaid,  Be  it  therefore  En- 
acted by  the  Governour  and  Council,  and  Reprefenratives  convened  in 
General  Aflembly,  and  it  is  hereby  Enacted  by  tht  Authority  of  the 
fame,  That  there  /hall  be  held  and  kept  in  the  reipeftive  Counties  afore- 
faid, upon  every  Tburfdayoi the  Week  at  Jamaica  within  Quetns  County 
on  Long-ljland ;  and  on  every  Saturday  of  the  Weak  at  Kjngflon  in  the 
County  of  Vljfer;  on  every  Wednesday  of  the  Week  at  Wtjlchefttr  in 
the  County  of  PYeftcheJler,  publick  and  open  Markets,  to  which  Mar- 
kets it  fhall  and  may  be  lawfull  for  all  and  every  the  Inhabitants  and 
Sojourners  of  this  Province  to  go,  frequent  and  refort,  and  thither  to 
carry  all  forts  of  Cattle,  Grain,  Victuals,  Provifions,  and  other  Ne~ 
celTaries,  together  with  all  forts  of  Merchandize  whatfoevcr,  and  at 
the  publick  Market-place  that  fhall  be  afligned  and  appointed  in  each 
refpe&ive  Town  aforefaid,  them  to  expofeto  fale  or  barter  in  grofs  or 
by  retail  between  the  hours  of  Eight  of  theCbck  in  the  Morning  and 
Sun-fet  of  the  fame  day,  without  the  payment  of  any  Toil,  or  any 
other  let,  hinderance  or  moleftation  whatfoever. 

And  be  it  further  Ena&ed  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  there 
fhall  likewife  beheld  and  kept  in  each  refpe&ive  City  and  County 
throughout  the  Province,  and  at  the  Times  &:  Places  hereafter  named, 
Twice  yearly  and  every  year  a  Fair.  To  which  Fair  it  fhall  and  may 
likwife  be  lawful  for  all  and  every  Perfon  or  Pcrfons,  Inhabitants, 
Strangers  or  Sojourners  of  this  Province,  &c.  totht  faid  Placeand 
Places,  at  the  Caid  Time  and  Times  where  the  faid  refpeclive  Fair  and 
Fairs  are  to  be  held  and  kept,  to  go,  frequent  and  reforr,  and  thther 
to  carry,  or  caufe  to  be  carried  all  forts  of  Cattle,  Horfes,  Mares, 
Colts,  Grain,  Victuals,  Provifions,  and  other  NecefTaries,  togethec 
with  all  forts  of  Merchandize,  of  what  Nature  foever,  and  them  to 
expofe  to  Sale  or  Barter  in  Grofs  or  by  Retail,  at  the  Times,  Hours  and 
Seafo  ns  that  the  Gove  1  nors  or  Rulers  of  the  faid  rifpe&ive  Fairs  for  the 
Time  being  fhall  proclaim  and  appoint. 

And  be  it  further  Ena&edby  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  there  he 

S  kepe 


E  70  If  > 

kept  Yearly,  for  the  City  and  County  of  Nem-Tork,  t#o  Fairs  at  the 
City  of  Neiv-Tork.  The  firft  Eair  antiually  to  commence  the  laft  Tuefday 
of  Aprilin  every  year,  and  to  end  upon  the  Fryday  then  next  following, 
being  in  all  four  days  ineluftve,  and  no  longer.  And  the  fecond  Fairto 
commence  the  firft  Tuefday  oi  November  in  every  year,  and  to  end  upon 
the  Fryday  then  next  following,  being  in  all  four  dayes  inclufive,  and 
no  longer. 

And  alio,  That  there  be  held  and  kept  one  Fair  annually  and  once 
in  the  "V  ear  for  Kjngs  County  onLong-IJIand  at  Flatbufb  in  the  faid  County, 
to  commence  the  fecond  Tuefday  oiOclober  every  Year,  and  to  end  upon 
the  Fryday  then  next  following,  being  in  all  four  days  inclufive,  and  no 
longer. 

And  alfb,  That  there  be  hel<J  and  kept  two  Fairs  yearly  for  £yeens 
County  on  Long-lfland,  the  firft  Fair  to  be  held  annually  at  Jamaica  w  ithin 
the  faid  County  on  the  firft  The/day  in  May  in  every  Year,  and  to  end  on 
the  Fryday  then  next  following,  being  in  all  four  days  inclufive,  and  no 
longer.  The  fecond  Fair  to  commence  on  the  third  Tuefday  of  Oftobtr, 
and  to  end  on  the  Fryday  then  next  following,  being  in  all  four  dayes 
inclufive,  and  no  longer. 

And  alfb,That  there  be  held  and  kept  two  Fairs  yearly  for  the  County 
of  Suffolk  on  Long-l/ltnd ;  the  firft  Fair  to  be  held  annually  at  South- 
hamftion>  the  firft  Tuefday  of  July  in  every  year,  and  to  end  on  Fryday 
then  next  following,  being  in  all  four  dayes  inclufive,  and  no  longer 
And  the  fecond  Fair  at  Southold,  to  commence  the  fecond  Tuefday  ot  Sep\ 
tember,  and  to  end  upon  the  Fryday  then  next  following,  being  in  a!| 
four  dayes  inclufive,  and  no  longer. 

And  alio,  That  there  be  held  in  the  City  and  County  of  Albany  two 
Fairs  yearly,  the  firft  Fair  to  be  kept  at  Albany,  and  to  commence  the 
third  Tuefday  of  July,  and  to  end  on  the  Fryday  then  next  following,  be- 
ing in  all  four  dayes  inclufive,  and  no  longer.  The  fecond  Fair  to  be 
held  at  Crawlier  in  Ranflaerfvick  on  the  third  Tuefday  in  Otfober,  and  to 
end  on  the  Fryday  following,  being  in  all  four  dayes  inclufive,  and  no 
longer. 

And  alfo,  That  there  be  held  Sc  kept  two  Fairs  yearly  for  the  Counrv 
of  Vljler,  the  firft  to  be  kept  at  Kjngflone  on  the  third  Thurfday  in  Marthy 
and  to  end  on  the  Saturday  then  next  following,being  three  days  inclufive, 
and  no  longer.  And  the  fecond  Fairto  begin  the  fecond  Thurfday  in 
Oltobcr,  and  to  end  on  the  Saturday  following. 

And  alfo,  that  there  be  held  and  kept  two  Fairs  yearly  for  the  County 
of  Weflchefler,  the  firft  to  be  kept  at  the  Town  of  Weftebefier  in  the  faid 
County,  on  the  fecond  Tuefday  in  May,  and  to  end  on  the  Fryday  follow- 
ing, being  in  all  four  days  inclufive,  and  no  longer.  And  the  fecond 
Fair  to  be  kept  at /te,  in  the  faid  County,  on  the  fecond  Tuefday  of 
Oclcber  yearly,  and  to  end  the  Fryday  then  next  following,  being  in  all 
four  days,  and  no  longer. 

And  alfo,  that  there  be  held  and  kepttwo  Fairs  yearly  in  the  County 
of  Richmond,  the  firft  on  the  North  fide  of  the  I  (land,  on  the  laft  Tuefday 
in  June,  and  to  end  on  the  fridaj  following,  being  in  all  four  days  in- 
clufive 


dufive,  and  no  longer  And  the  fecond  Fair  to  be  fcepr  at  the  laid  place 
on  the  ldft  TucftUy  in  September  %  and  to  end  on  the  brtiay  then  next  \c\* 
lowing,  being  in  all  four  dayes  inclufive,  and  no  longer.  All  which 
Fairs  at  the  Times  and  Places  aforefaid,  in  each  refpeclive  County 
refpe&ively,  (hall  be  holden,  together  with  a  Court  of  Pypoudcrs,  and 
with  all  Liberties^  Free  Cuftomsro  fuch  Fairs  appertaining,  or  which, 
ought  or  may  appertain,  according  to  the  Ulage  and  Cuftoms.of  Fairs 
holden  in  their  Majefties  Realm  of  EngUni. 

And  for  the  more  regular  Government  of  the  feveral  and  refpe&iv© 
Fairs  afore-mentioned,  tfie  Governour  (hall  commiflionate  and  appoint 
fuch  perlbrior  perfonsin  each  refpe&ive  County  aforefaid,  where  fush 
Fairs  are oe  holden  and  kept,  to  beGovernours  and  Rulers  of  the  faid 
Fairs,  r^pe&ively.  Which  Governor  or  Ruler,  fo  appointed  and  com- 
mtfionated  as  aforefaid,  is  hereby  a  uthorized  and  impowercd  to  have  8c 
zsolda  Court  of  Pypouders,  together  with  all  Liberty  and  free  Cuftom 
to  fuch  appertaining.  And  that  they  and  eve  ry  of  them  may  have  and 
hold  there,  at  their  and  every  of  their  refpe&ive  Courts  the  faid 
dayes,  from  day  to  day,  and  hour  to  hont,  from  time  to  time,  upon  all 
occasions,  Plaints  and  Pleas  of  a  Court  of  Pypoudcrs,  together  with  all 
Summons,  Attachments,  Arrefts,  Iflues,  Fines,  Redemptions  and  Com- 
modities, and  other  Rights  whatfbever  to  the  lame  Court  of  Pypouders 
any  way  pertaining,  without  any  impediment,  let  or  hinderance  what- 
loever.  Al waves  provided  That  the  Governour  or  Ruler  of  the  faid 
refpective  Fairs  aforefaid,  lhall,  or  oaule  Cry  and  publifh  witbifi  and 
without  the  Liberties  of  the  faid  refpe&ive  Fairs,  Where  they  {Ball  hold 
the  faoie,  the  time  that  they  ought  to  hold  it,  and  no  longer.  And  that 
every  Governour  or  Rulerdf  the  refpe£Hve  Fairs  aforefaid,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  his  Fairfoall  there  cry,  proclaim  and  publifh  how  long  that 
Fair  lhall  endure-,  to  the  intent  that  Mcrchanrs  and  others  fhall  not  be 
atthefame  Fairs  over  thetlme  fo  publifbed,  upon  pain  of  being  fined 
foi  the  fame.  Nor  that  the  (aid  Governor  or  Ruler  fhall  not  hoW  tfeit 
refpettive  Fairs  over  the  due  time  hereby  limitted,  upon  pain  of  forfeit*- 
ing  the  keeping  of  the  faid  Fairs,  untot  heir  Majefties. 

And  for  the  preventing  of  Abu fe  in  any  of  tfie  aforefaid  Fairs  and 
Markets,  Be  it  further  Stuffed  by  the  Authority  aforefaid  That  the 
Governor  or  Ruler  of  the  refpe&ive  Fairs  aforefaid,  lhall  yearly  appoint 
and  limit  out  a  certain  and  fpecial  open  place  within  the  refpcclive 
Towns  aforefa  id,  where  the  refpeftive  Fairs  are  to  be  held  and  kept, 
vthere  Horfes,  Marcs,  Geldings,  Colts,  and  other  Cattle  may  be  fold  ; 
In  which  faid  certain  and  open  place,  asaforefaid,  there  fhaU  be  by  the 
Governour  or  Ruler  aforefaid,  pur  in  and  appointed  one  furhcient 
Ferfon,  o-  more,  to  take  Toll,  and  keep  the  fame  place  from  ten  ot  the 
Clock  in  the  Morning  until  Sun-fetof  every  day  of  the  afoieTaid  Fairs 
and  Markers,  upon  pain  to  loofe  and  forfeit  upon  every  default  forty 
Shillings  And  that  every  Toll-gatherer,  his  Deputy  or  Deputies,  fhajl 
during  the  time  of  every  the  faid  Fairs,  take  the  (urn  ot  Nine  Pence  as 
due  and  lawlull  Toll  for  every  fuch  Her  fe,  Mare,  Gelding  or  Colt,  at 


C  7*  3  e 

the  faid  cpen«place  <to  -be  appointed,  as  aforefaid ,  and  between  the  hours' 
of  Ten  of  the  Clock  in  the  Morning,  andSun-fet  of  the  fame  day,  it  it 
,be  tendered,  and  npt  at  any  other  time  &  place ;  and  fljall  have  prtfrnt 
before  him  or  them,  at  the  taking  of  the  lame  Toll,  the  Parties  to  the 
Bargain*  Exchange,  Gift,  Contract,  or  putting  away  of  every  fucb  Horle, 
Mares  Gelding  or  Colt,  and  alfo  the  fame  Horfe,  Mare,  Gelding  or 
Colt  lb  fold,  exchanged  or  put  away;  and  (hall  then  write,  or  caule  to 
be  written  in  a  Book,  to  be  kept  for  that  purpofe,  the  Names,  Sn  -  names 
and  dwelling  Places  of  all  the  faid  Parties;  and  th&  Colour,  with  ons 
ipecialMarkat  leaft,  of  every  fuch  Horie,Maxe,  Gelding  or  Colt,  on 
pain  to  forfeit  at  and  for  every  default,  contrary  to  the  went  hereof,  the 
fum  of  forty  Shillings  currant  Money  aforefaid.  And  tke  faid  Tell- 
Gatherer  or  Keeper  of  the  faid  Book.fhall  within  one  day  next  after  luch 
Fair,  bring  &  deliver  his  faid  Book  to  the  Governor  or  Ruler  of  the  faid 
Fair,  who  fhallthen  caufeaNo-eto  be  made  of  the  true  Number  of  all 
Horfes,  Mares,  Geldings  and  Colts  fold  at  tjie  faid  Fair,  and  (ball  there 
fubferibe  his  Name,  upon  p«ur?.  to  him  that  fhall  make  default  therein, 
tolofe  and  forfeit  for  every  default^  the  ftim  of  forty  Shillings  cun  act 
Money  aforefaid,  and  alfotoaufwer  to  the  party  grieved  by  realon  of 
the  fame,  his  Negligence  in  every  behalf*  And  the  fai  l  GQvernoror 
Ruler,  his  Deputy  or  Deputies  (hall  takefor  the  entring  of  every  Horfe, 
Marc,  Gelding  &  Colt,  fold  in  the  refpe&ive  Fairs,  asatorefaid,  for  Toll 
of  the  fame,the  fum  of  Nine  Fence,  the  one  halfto  be  paid  by  the  Buyer, 
and  the  other  half  by  the  Seller.  Provided  always,  That  nothing  herein 
contained  (hall  be  taken  or  conftruedto  infringe  upon  the  Rights  and 
Priviledgesof  the  Cities  of  Nav-mk,  A&*ny,  k  Ranjkri-mtk,  but  that 
the  Mayor  and  Aldermen,  fir  the  Proprietor  of  the  Mannor  of  RanJUers- 
pick,  of  their  refpe&ivc  Cities  and  Mannor,  for  the  time  being,  Ihall 
always  bepurfuant  to  the  Directions  of  their  refpeftive  Charters  and 
Grants,  the  only  Rulers  or  Governours  of  the  afore- mentioned  Fairs  to 
be  held  in  their  xefpecHve  Cities  and  Mannors,  any  thing  contained 
herein  to  the  contrary  hereof  in  any  ways  notwithstanding. 


Jin  A3  for  the  fupervifng  Inteftates  Eft  ares,  and  'Re- 
gulating the  Probate  of  Wttsy  ij  granting  Letttrs 
of  Administration. 

X  71  THereas  the  Right  of  Orphans,  and  the  Eftate  of  fuch  as  dye 
V  V  Inteflate  throughout  this  Province  and  Dependencies3are  often 
concealed,  wafted,  inibez^ledandd'eftroyed,  to  the  utter  Kuinof  many 
Orphans,  and  the  prcjudice:of  the  next  of  Kin  to  fuch  as  dye  Inteftate, 
for  want  of  having  good  Sriufficien:  Penons  in  each  refpe&ive  County 
throughout  the  Province,  for  the  due  and  regular  Enquiry  after  the 
fame,  Be  it therefore  EfLt^d  by  the  Governour  and  Council,  and  Re- 
prefentathro  convened  in  General  AlTerribly,  and  it  is  hereby  Enafled 

by 


by  the  Authority  of  the  fame,  That  on  or  before  the.2$th  diy  of  hUrgJn 
next,  in  the  Vearof  Our  Lard  i$9j.  there  /hall  beeJeded  or  appointed 
in  eachrelpe&ive  Town  throughout  the  Counties  within  this  Provinces 
two  able  and  fufficient  Fjfee4iolderj,  who  (hall  upon  the  Death  of  any 
Pdrffcnor  Perfons  in  their  refpe&ive  Towus,repair  unto  the  Houie,Place, 
or  Habitation  where  tfce  deceafed  did  refide,  within  forty  eight  hours 
after  the  Interment  of  the  faid  deceafed,  and  there  make  Enquiry,  LP 
the  deceafed  made  any  Will,  or  hud  any  Real  or  Perfonal  Eftate,  not  dzufftdby 
him  at  the  time  of  his  or  their  Death  f  And  if  upon  Eaquit  y ,  t  hat  be  m  ade 
no  Will,  but  dyed  Inteftate,  then  and  inrfiidh  cafe  it  ihall  be  lawful  foe 
fucb  Perron  or  Perfons,  eleebed  or  appointed  in  each  refpe&ive  Town, 
as  aforefaidv  to  make  ftrid  and  diligent  Search  and  Enquiry  into  all  the 
Real  atjd  Perfonal  Eftate  that  the  faid  Inteftate  dyed  poifefted  of.  and 
the  fame  to  Inveatory,  and  bring,  or  caufc  to  be  brought  unto  fuel* 
Perfon  or  Perfons,  in  the  County  where  fuch  Inteftate  dyed  who  fhaU 
by  the  Governourfbr  the  time  being,  be  delegated,  on  purpofe  for  fuper- 
vifing  Inteftates  Eftates,  &c.  in  each  refpeftive  County  throughout  the 
Province,  and  the  fame  with  him  file,  declaring  upon  their  Oatnes, 
That  the  fittd  Inventory  doth  contain*  trut  aadperfetf  Account  of  the  faid  in- 
n fates  Eft  ate,  that  has  come  unto  their  KjsDwkdge.    Whereupon  the  Reribri 
or  Perfons  fb  delegated,  as  aforefaid,  (hall  iSue  out  hjs  or  their  Warrant 
to  two  good  and  fufficient  Free- holders  inhabiting  within  the  Town 
where  the  Inteftate  dyed*  for  the  Appraifment  of  the  Goods  Be  Chatrefcs 
left  by  the  fnteftate,  ana  Inventoried  as  afbrefeid.    And  upon  the  Re- 
turn thereof  to  him,  he  fhall  caufe  the  lame  to  be  fecured,  or  Ibid  for 
the  molt  of  their  Value,  and  the  produce  thereof  to  remain  in  his  funds, 
or  put  out  into  good  and  fufBcient  hands*  who  fhall  be  able  to  produce 
the  fame  again,  when  the  next  of  Kin  fball  appear  in  right  to  claim  the 
feme.    And  if  the  laid  Inteftate,  at  the  time  of  his  Death,  did  leaae,  a 
Wife  and  Children  behind  him,  then  and  in  fuch  cafe  the  Wife  fhaU  only 
have  the  Right  of  Adminiftration  upon  the  faid  Inteftaws  filiate,  as  the 
Law  doth  direcT:,  and  not  other  wife.   But  if  the  faid  Inteftate  did  leave 
only  Orphans  behind  him,  and  has  no  Relations  or  Kindred  who  will 
adroinifrer  upon  the  faid  Integrates  filiate,  then  the  Superviler  of  each 
f  refpe£hvc  County,  delegated  a«  aforefaid,  (hall  only  have  the  Admini- 
ftration  and  Care  of  the  laid  Inteftates  Eftate,  and  the  lame  fhall  fecurc 
as  aforefaid,  for  the  ufe,  benefit  gud  behoof  of  the  did  Orphans,  and 
pot  O'herwife.    And  the  (aid  Inteftates  Eftate,  fo  Inventory 'd  as  afore- 
faid, fball  caufetobe  well  fecured,and  improved  to  the  belt  Advantage 
for  the  behoof  of  the  faid  Orphans,  until  they  Marry  or  come  to  the  Age 
of  One  and  Twenty  Years.    And  that  he  fhall  likewife  take  take  effect- 
ual care  for  the  Educating  and  In  ft  rutting  the  faid  Orphans  in  the  Holy 
Ptotejiant  Religion,  and  that  they  be  honeftly  maintained,  according  to 
the  Capacity  of  the  faid  Inteftates  Eftate,  and  not  otherwife. 

And  Be  u  father  Enacled  by  the  Autliority  aforefaid,  That  the  Pro- 
bate of  all  Wills  and  Letters  of  Adminiftration  fhall  be  from  hence  forth 
granted  by  the  Governour,  or  fuch  Perfonas  hefliall  delegate  under  the 

T  Seal 


C  74  ] 

Stal  of  the  Prerogative  Office,  for  that  purpofe  appointed.  And  that 
all  Wills  relating  to  any  Eftate  within  the  (everal  Counties  of  Or  agpaod 
Richmond,  Avt(t,  ChtHtr,  Kj*gs  County ,  /hall  be  proved  at  AVaOsri 
before  the  Governour,  or  fuch  Perfon  as  he  fhiU  delegate,  as  atoreCud. 
But  ill  regard  of  the  Remoteneftof  theorher  Counties  from  Nf*-7arx, 
and  to  prevent  the  great  Change  and  Inconveniences  of  bringing  wit- 
nelfes  rb  far,  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  in  each  of  thde  remote 
Counties,  are  hereby  impowercdand  authorised  to  take  the  Examina- 
tion  ofWItnefles  toanyWill  whmntheirrei^&iveCouDttes  upon  Oath, 
and  the  fame,  with  the  Will  to  certific  to  thi  Secretary's  Office  at  A^ar 
Tcrk,  with  all  convenient  fpeed,  under  the  Hand  of  the  Judge  &  Clark 
of  the  faid  Court,  that  the  Probate  thereof  may  be  granted  accordingly. 
And  in  the  timeof  the  vacancy  of  the  faid  Gxtrts  of  Common  Pleas,  or 
upon  any  extraordinary  Occafien  or  NeceHiry ,  the  refpechve  Judges  of 
the  Inferiour  Courts,  affiftcd  with  two  Juftkes  of  the  Peace,  within  the 
laid  remote  Counties,  may,  and  are  hereby  irapoaered  and  authorized 
at  any  time,duriog  the  vacancy  cf  the  faid  relpeelive  Courts,  to  take  the 
Examination  of  Witneffes,  to  any  Wrll  produced  before  them,  apon 
Oath,  and  to  certifie  the  fame,  asafbrelaid.  And  in  cafe  any  Debate  or 
Contro/erfic  fhall  arife  about  Swearing  3c  Examining  fuch  Wkoefles, 
or  a  Ho  wing  the  Will,  the  laid  Court,  or  Judge  8c  Jufacesmay  hear  and 
determine  the  fame.  And  if  any  be  unfatisfied  with  their  Proceedings 
thersin,they  may  appeal  to  the  Goverfiour,  or  to  fuch  other  Perfon  dele- 
gated as  aforelaid,  before  the  Probate  of  fuch  Wiii  be granted. 

And  it  is  f§rthtr  E**3ed  by  the  Atthority  af*ref*tdy  That  the  feveral 

Judges  of  the  relpeftive  Courts  within  the  faid  remote  Counties,  in 
open  Courts,  and  on  extraordinary  OccaOons  or  Neceflity,  ouxofCoort, 
afTifted  v% ith  two  Juftices  of  the  Peace  aforefaid,  may,  and  are  hereby 
authorized  and  im  powered  to  grant  Probates  of  any  Will,  or  Letters  of 
Adminiftraticn  to  any  Perfon  or  Perfcns,  where  the  Eftate  of  the  Perfon 
making  fuch  Will,  or  of  the  Inteftateoo  which  Letters  of  Adminifiia- 
tion  fs  deGred,  doth  not  exceed  the  value  cf  Fifty  Pounds, .  any  thing 
herein  contained  to  the  contrary  hereof  in  any  ways  notwithstanding. 
Prorided  alwayes,  That  any  Perfon  or  Perfons  concerned  in  the  Probate 
of  fuch  Wills  or  Letters  of  Admicifl ration  to  be  granted  by  the  Judge 
of  the  faid  Courts,  as  aforefaid,  may  within  three  Moneths  after  the 
granting  thereof,  bring  his  or  their  Appeal  or  Appeals. therein  before  the 
Governour,  or  fuch  other  Perfon  delegated,  as  aforcfaid. 


An  Acl  for  the  Encouraging  a  Pcjl -Office* 

T  It  7Hereas  their  Mcft  Excellent  Majefties  by  Their  Letters  Patents 
V  V    under  the  Great  Sesl  cf  England,  bearing  date  the  i  ;th  da>  of 
Ttbrtury,  in  the  Year  of  our  Lord  1691.  have  given  unto  Thomas  Ae*4 

Efr;: 


£  7f  I 

Efq;  hi* Executors,  Admioirtrators  and  Afngns  lull  Power  and  Autho- 
rity to  erect.,  fettle  and  eftablifb  within  the  chief  Ports  Of  their  faid 
Majefties  Collonies  and  Plantations  in  Amerira,  an  Offics  or  Offices  for 
the  Receiving  and  Difpatching  of  Letters  and  Pacquets,  aod  to  receive, 
fendand  deliver  the  fame,  underfuch  flatesaad  Sums  of  Money  as  the 
Planters  (hallagrct  to  give,  &c.  to  hold  and  enjoy  the.  fame  for  the  term 
of  one  and  twenty  Years,  with  fuch  Powers  and  Cfaufes  as  are  oeceffary 
on  that  behalf,  as  by  the  faid  Letters  Patents,  relation  being  thereunto 
had,  ray  more  fully  and  at  large  appear.    And  whereas  Andrew 
Hamkort,  Efq;  is  deputed  and  conftitued  to  govern  and  manage  the 
faid  General  Poft-OfEce,  for  and  throughout  all  their  Majeftics  Pianta- 
tioiisand  Colloniss  upon  the  main  Land  or  Continent  of  America,  and 
IQands  adjacent  thereunto,  purfuant  to  the  directions  of  the  faid  Letters 
Patents.  •  And  whereas  he  tne  (aid  Andrew  Hamilton  hath  made  Applica- 
tions his  Excellency ,theGovernour,  and  Council,  and  Reprefentatives 
convened  in  General  AfTembly,  That  they  would  afcerta in  and  eftabh/h 
fiicb  Rates  and  Sums  of  Money.uponthe  Letters  and  Pacquets  that  /hall 
be  received  anddifpatched  by  the  faid  Office  and  Offices,  for  the  effect- 
ual encouraging  of  the  (aid  General  Poft  Office,  and  for  the  quicker 
maintenance  of  mutual  Cbrrefpondency  amongft  all  our  Neighbouring 
Collonies  and  Plantations  afbrefaid,  and  that  Trade  and  Commerce  may 
be  the  better  preferved,    Be  it  therefore  EnaSedby  the  Governcur  and 
Qwntily  and  Reprefentatives  convened  in  General  Ajmbly>  and  by  the 
Authority  of  the  fame,  That  there  fhall  be  from  henceforth  a  General 
Letter-Office  erected  and  eftablifhed  in  (bme  convenient  place  within 
the  City  of  New-Terk,  from  whence  all  Lettersand  Pacquets  whatfbevsr, 
may  be  withfpeed  &■  expedition  lent  into  any  part  of  our  Neighbouring 
Collonies  and  Plantations  on  this  main  Land  and  continent  of  America, 
or  unto  any  other  of  their  Majefties  Kingdoms  and  Dominions  beyond 
the  S«as.   At  which  faid  Office  all  Returns  and  Anfwers  may  be  like- 
wife  received.    And  that  one  Mafterof  the  faid  General  Letter-Office 
fhall  from  time  to  time  be  appointed  by  the  faid  Andrew  Hamilton } 
which  faid  Mafterof  the  faid  Office,  or  his  Servant  or  Agent,  and  no 
other  Perfbn  or  Perfbns  whatsoever,  fhall  from  time  to  time  ha the 
receiving,  taking  up,  ordering,  difpatching,  fending  Poft  or  with  fpeed, 
and  delivering  of  ill  Letters  and  Pacquets  whatfoever,  which  fhall  from 
time  to  time  be  lent  to  and  from  all  and  every  of  the  adjacent  CbHonies 
and  Plantations  on  this  main  Land  and  Continent  of  Aweritd,  or  any 
other  of  their  Majefties  Kingdoms  and  Dominions  beyond  the  Seas* 
where  he  the  (aid  Poft-Mafter  General  fhall  fettle,  or  caufe  to  be  fettled 
Pofts  or  Running  MefTengers,  for  rhat  purpofe,  except  fucb  Letters  of 
Merchants  8c  Matters,  which  fhall  be  fent  by  any  Mafiers  of  any  Ships, 
Barques,  or  other  VefTels  of  Merchandize,  or  by  any  other  Perfbn  im- 
ployedby  them  for  th«  carriage  of  fuch  Letters  afcrefaid,  according  to 
the  refpective  Directions ;  and  alfo  excepr  Lettets  to  be  fent  by  any  pri- 
vate Friend  or  Friends,  in  their  ways  and  Jnurnies  or  Travel,  or  by  any 
McfTengeror  Me(Tengers  fent  on  purpofe  for  or  concerning  the  private 
Aftairsof  any  Perfon  or  Perfons. 

And 


And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  afore/aid,  That  fuch  Poft- 
Maftcffor  the  time  being,and  no  other  fWon  whatfoever,  fhait  prepare 
and  provide  Horfes  and  Furniture  to  let  to  hire  unco  all  through  Pofts 
and  Perfons  riding  in  Poft,  with  Commiffion  or  without,  to  and  from 
all  and  every  of  the  adjacentCollonies  and  Plantations  on  this  main  Land 
or  Continent  in  Americs,  where  any  Poft  Roads  are- or  fhall  be  fettled 
and  eftablifhed. 

And  be  it  further  Biuffed  by  the  Authority  dforefaid1 That  it  fhall  and 
may  be  lawful  to  and  for  th§  Pdft-Mafter  General  aforefaid,  and  his 
deputy  &  Deputies^by  him  thereunto  fuificiently  authorized,  to  demand, 
have,  receive  and  take  for  the  Portage  &  Conveyance  of  all  fuch  Letters 
which  he  fhall  fo convey,  carry  or  fend  Poft  as  aforefaid  ;  and  for  the 
providing  a*nd  furntfhing  Horfes  for  through  Pofts,  or  Perfons  riding 
in  Poft,  as  aforefaid,  according  to  the  feveral  Rates  and  Sums  ot  Currant 
Money  of  this  Province,  hereafter  mentioned,  not  to  exceed  the  fame, 
that  is  to  fay,  That  the  Port  of  every  fingle  Letter  to  Or  from  Europe,  the 
WtH-lndksr  or  elfc-where  to  and  from  beyond  the  Seas,  Nine  Pence, 
currant  Money  aforefaid,  and  fb  in  proportion  to  the  greataefs  or  qu  in* 
tity  of  faid  Letters.  .'Arid  for  the  Port  of  every  fingle  Letter  from. 
to  New*Torky  or  from  Maryland  to  NevcJCork,  Nine  Pence,  cnrrant  Money 
aforefaid,  and  fb  in  prbjportion,  asaforefaid.  And  for  the  Port  of  every 
fingle  Letter  from  Virginia,  to  Nery-firk,  Twelve  Pence,  currant  Money 
aforefaid,  and  fb  in  proportion,  as  aforefaii.  And  for  thef  Port  of  every 
fingle  Letter  to  or  from,  any  place  not  exceeding  Eighty  Miles  diftant 
from  New-Tork,  Four  Pence  Half  Penny,  currant  Money  aforefaid,  and 
{bin  proportion,  as  aforefaid. 

And  for  the  more  effectual  encouragement  of  the  faid  General  Jofr- 
Office,  Be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid.  That  all  the 
fefpeclive  Poft-Mafters  that  fhall  be  fettled  in  th«'refpe£tive  Stages  for 
the  purpofe aforefaid  throughout,  the  Province,  fhall,  during  the  fpace 
indtime  that  this  Aft  fhall  be  in  force,  be  fre'e'd  and  exempted  from  Ex- 
cite and  all  Publick  Services  whatfoever,  except  the  P.  ft -Matter  of  the 
City  of  Ncw-Totk,  who  is  only  exempted  from  Puhlidc  Services. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  no  Perfbn  or 
Perfons  whatfoever,  or  Body  Politick  or  Corporate,  'other  than  the  Poft 
Mafter  General  aforefaid,  /hall  prefume  to  carry,  re-carry  or  deliver 
Letters  for  hire,  other  than  as  before  excepted,  or  to  fet  up,  or  imploy 
any  Foot- Poft,Horfe- Poft  or  Pacquet  Boat  whatfoever,  for  the  Carrying, 
conveying  and  re-carrying  of  any  Letters  or  Pacquets  by1  Sea  or  Land 
Within  this  Province,  cr  fhall  provide  and  maintain  Hories,&  Furniture 
for  the  Horfes  of  any  through-Pofts,  or  Perfons  riding  Poft  with  a  Guide 
and  Horn",  as  is  ufual  in  their  Majefties  Realm  of  England,  upon  pain  of 
forfeiting  the  fum  of  One  Hundred  Pounds  currant  Money  aforefaid,  for 
every  feveral  Offence  againft  the  Tenor  of  this  prelent  Act,  tobefued 
and  recovered  in  any  Court  of  Record  within  this  Province,  by  Bill, 
Plaint  or  Information,  wherein  no  ElToyn,  Protection  or  Wager  of  Law 
fhall  be  admitted,  one  half  of  the  faid  Forfeiture  to  the  Governour,  and 
the  other  half  to  the  Poft-Mafter  Genera!,  who  fhall  fue  and  profecute 
the  fame.  Be 


Beit  further  Enacted  the1  A$$berity  afortfiid,  That  all  Letters  and 
Pacquets  thatby  an/  Mafterof  any  Ship  or  Vcflcl,  or  any  Of  his  Com* 
pany,  or  any  FaUcngers  therein,  &all  or  may  be  brought  to  this  Port 
q{  New-York,  other  than  fueh  Letters  as  are  before  excepted,  djall  by 
fuch  Mafler,  Paflcnger  or  other  Perfon,  be  forth* with  delivered  unto 
she  Poft-Mafter  of  HewT»rk  for  the  time  being,  Or  unto  his  Servant  or 
Servants,  and  by  him  or  them  to  be  delivered  according  to  the  feverai 
and  respective  Directions  of  the  fame.  Provided,  That  tto  Letters  go- 
ing up  or  coming  down  Hud/oat  &tvtr3  going  to  or  from  Lwg-ljlands 
ftiallbecarryed  to  thePo&  ^fK*^  *bme  hcioiu  «©ntained  to  the 
contrary  hereof  o«r*ithftanding*  Provided  alwayes,  That  nothing 
herein  mentioned  (hall  be  in  force  longer  than  three  Years  next  and  after 
the  Publication  hereof,  any  thing  to  the  contrary  hereof  in  any  wares 
notwithstanding* 


An  Aft  for  the  fatisfying  and  paying  the  Debts ef 
the  Government. 

THe  ReprefentativeS  convened  in  General  ArTembly,  being  willing 
that  all  fuch  as  have  advanced  Money  for  the  fuppOrt  of  the  Go- 
vernment, (hould  be  well  and  truly  paid  and  fatisfied ;  and  for  that 
purpofe  have  agreed  that  the  Rates  and  Duties  herein  after  mentioned 
fhould  be  levyed  and  collected,  and  pray  that  it  may  be  Enacted,  Ani 
belt  thervfore*E*a&ed  bp  the  Governottr  and  Council y  and  Reprefeutatves 
convened  in  General  Ajfemblyt  and  by  the  Authority  of  the  fame.  That  tho 
Rates  and  Duties  herein  after-mentioned,  fliall  be  levied  and  collected, 
and  be  only  appropriated  and  applyed  to  the  payment  of  fuch  Debts  due 
for  the  fupport  of  the  Government,  aforefaia,  and  the  faid  Rates  and 
Duties  herein  afterinentioned,  hereby  authorized  to  fce  levyed  and  col- 
lected, (hall  he  quarterly  paid  to  fuch  Perfon  or  PerKos  who  arc  now 
the  prefent  Creditors,  &  have  advanced  their  Money,  as  aforelaid,  their 
Executors,  Adminiftratorsor  Affigns,  in  two  years  from  the  Publication 
hereof,  in  eight  quarterly  Payments,  and  in  equal  proportions,  accor- 
ding to  the  greatnefs  and  fmallneis  of  the  Sums  due,  without  any  pri* 
ority  or  refpett  to  Perfons,  and  not  otherwife.    And  that  the  refidue  of 
the  Money  artfing  and  payable  by  this  Act,  if  any  be,  fliall  be  appropri- 
ated and  applyed,  from  and  after  the  payment  of  the  feverai  Dents,  as 
aforelaid,  unco  the  fupport  of  the  Government,  and  for  no  other  ufe  or 
purpofe  whatloever,  any  thing  in  this  or  any  other  Act  contained  to  the 
contrary  notwithstanding. 

And  that  from  and  after  the  Publication  hereof,  there  fhall  be  railed, 
levyed,  collected  and  paid  unto  their  Ma  jefties,during  the  fpace  &  term  of 
two  years,  after  the  publication  hereof,  asaforefaid,  and  no  longer,  the 
feverai  Rates  and  Duties  herein  after-mentioned,,  over  &  above  all  other 

Duties, 


r  78  3 

Unties,  Charges  and  Impofitioni  by  any  former  Aft  and  Acts  fct  arcd 
impofed,  that  is  to  fay,  The  Rate  and  Duty  of  Twopence,  currant 
Money  of  New.Tork,  For  every  Gallon  of  Rum,  Brandy,  and  other  di- 
billed  Liquors.    And  the  Rate  and  Duty  of  thirty  Shillings  for  every 
Pipe  of  Wine.    And  five  Shillings  for  every  Hogfbead  of  MaloiTos,  and 
fo  in  proportion  for  any  greater  and  leffer  Quantity  that  /hall  be  Import* 
cd  into  this  Province  and  Dependencies,  from  and  after  the  Publication 
hereof.   And  alio  the  Rate  and  Duty  of  Two  per  Qenh  prime  Coft,  upon 
all  other  Goods  of  the  Growth,  Production  or  Manufacture  of  Europe, 
that  /hall  from  and  after  rf»  Pufci^;^  foiunf  be  Imported,  as  aforefaid. 
And  alfo,.  the  Rate  and  Duty  of  Six  per  Cent*  prinve  Colt,  of  the  Goods 
and  Merchandize  of  the  Growth,  Production  &  Manufacture  of  Europe 
that  fhdli  from  and  after  the  Publication  hereof,  be  imported  into  this 
Province  and  Dependencies,  from  any  other  part  or  place  than  their  Ma- 
jefties  Kingdom  of  England,  Dominion  of  Wales ,and  Town  of  Berwick 
upon  Twetd. 

And  be  it  forth  er  Enabled  by  the  Authority  aforefad,T\\zx.  the  feveral  Rafes 
and  Duties  hereby  impofed  on  the  Liquors  and  Merchandize  aforefaid 
fiiall  be  raifed,  leyyed,  collected,  recovered  and  paid  unto  their  Majefties 
Collector  and  Receiver  General  for  the  time  being,  during  the  term  be- 
fore mentioned,  and  in  the  fame  manner  and  form,  and  by  fuch  Rules, 
Allowances,  Ways,  and  Means,  and  under  fuch  Penalties,  Fines  and: 
Forfeitures,  as  are  mentioned,  exprefTed  and  directed  in  and  by  one  Ad 
of  General  Amenably  made  in  this  prefent  Seflions  of  AflemMy  ,cntituled, 
An  Alt  for  efiahlifhing  a  Revenue  to  defray  the  publick  and  necejfary  Charges 
of  the  Province. 

And  forafmueh  as  it  is  manifeft  that  there  are  feveral  Sums  of  Money 
collected  and  received  by  fundry  Perfbns,  an  1  not  paid  unto  their  Ma- 
jefties Receiver  General :  And  alfo,  that  there  are  ieveral  Pcrfbas  that 
continue  and  remain  indebted  for  the  feve;al  Duties  and  Impofitions,  and 
Bxcife  upon  Liquors,  which  were  formerly  eftabUfhed  by  the  late  Go- 
vernment, for  defraying  the  publick  Charges  thereof,  and  that  it  is  moft 
reafonable  and  juft  that  all  the  arrears©?  the  la  me  /hould  be  raifed,  levied, 
collected,  anfwered  and  paid  onto  their  Majefties  Receiver  General,  for 
and  towards  the  Debt  aforefaid  ;  Be  it  therefore  Er&Zkd  by  the  Authority 
aforefaid,  That  all  and  every  Perfbn  or  Perfom  who  have  received  any 
Sum  or  Sums  from  any  of  their  Mi  jefties  Subjects  within  thisProvince, 
or  under  pietenceof  any  Duties,  Impofitions,  or  Excite,  formerly  efla- 
blifhedby  the  late  Government,  from  the  nth  day  of  Augufty  in  the 
Jfear  of  our  Lord  1688.  unt  ll  the  20th  day  of  March,  in  the  Year  of  our 
Lord  1691.   At^d  likwife>  all  and  every  Perfbn  and  Perfons  that  are  ia 
arrears  for  any  of  the  Duties,  Impofitions  or  Excife,  as  aforefoid,  fhalf 
within  four  Kalendep  Mooeths  after  the  publication  heregf,  come 
unto  their  Majefties  Receiver  General  at  New.Tork>  and  there  account 
with  him  for  all  and  every  Sum  or  Sums  of  Money,  fb  go  Uccted  and  re- 
ceived by  them,  and  every  of  them:  And  alfo,  for  what  they  are  ia 
arrears  for  any  of  the  Duties,  Impofitions  or  Bxcite,asaforeiaid$and  pay 
the  fame  unto  him,  without  any  further  delay.   And  if  any  Perfca  or 

Pec  fen* 


Perlons  (hall  refufeor  negle&,  upon  furnmons  of  their  Majefties  Recei- 
ver General,  to  account  8r  pay  the  funis  of  Money  found  due  in  arrears, 
as  aforefaid,  it  fhall then  be  lawful  for  th«ir  Ma }e fties  Receive  r  General, 
who  is  hereby  authorized  to  do  the  lame,  to  iffue  out  his-  Warrant  under 
his  Hand  and  Seal,  to  make  Diftrefs  upon  the  Goods  and  Chattels  of 
fuch  perfon  or  pcrfonsthat  fhall  be  found  indebted,or  in  arrear$,as  afore* 
faid,  and  the  fame  to  expole  to  Sale  by  Publick  Out-cry,  and  the  pro- 
duce thereof  to  take,  unt  il  he  be  fatisfied  for  the  Sums  of  Money  due  and 
in  arrears,  as  aforefaid.  All  which  Sum  &  <Sums  of  Money  fo  received 
by  him,  fhall  be  paid  and  imployM  tn  the.  I  Jfes  aforefaid,  and  to  no 
other  ufe,  intent  or  wrr>&  whatfoever .  And  all  the  Afti  and  Ordi- 
nances made  by  the  late  Govornour  and  Council  for  and  concerning  any 
oftke  Duties,  Impofiriens  and  Bxcife  aforefaid,  fhall  remain  and  con* 
tinue  in  full  force  and  virtue  until  all  the  faid  Sums  of  Money,  8*  arrears 
due  thereupon  be  fully  paid  and  fatisfied,  according  to  the  tenor  of  ibis 
A3,  any  thmg  contained  herein,  or  in  any  other  Aft,  to  the  contrary 
hereof  in  any  ways  notwithftanding.  Provided,  That  all  Merchants 
and  others,  who  are  to  pay  the  additrotraiilates  and  Duties  hereby  efta- 
blifoed,  (hall  have  the  time  of  three  Moneths  after  their  rcfpe&ive  Erv 
tries  made,  for  the  Duties  aforefaid,  for  the  payment  of  the  Rates  and 
Duties  aforefaid,  any  thing  contained  to  the  contrary  hereof  nor* 
wlthftanding. 


Afts  patfed  in  the  Fifth  Seffions  of  the  General 
Affembly,  begun  at  the  City  of  New-Tor  l7  the 
22th  day  of  March,  1692.  0 


An  Acl  for  calling  Long-Iftand  the  Ifland  o/Naffaw* 

TJ  E  it  Rna&ed  by  the  Governour  and  Council,  and  Reprefentatives 
J5~j  convened  in  General  Aflembly,  and  by  tbe  Authority  of  the  fame 
Tlvtt  the  Ifland,  commonly  called  &  known  by  the  Name  o^Lnnglfimi, 
fball  from  hence-forth  be  called,  The  I/land o/j&affatO.  And  that  after 
she  Publication  hereof,  all  their  Majefties  loving  Subjects  are  hereby  re* 
quired,  in  all  Grants,  Patents,  Deeds,  Conveyances,  Bargains  of  Sale, 
Bills,  Bonds,  Records,  and  other  Inftruments  in  Writing  that  fllall  here- 
after be  made,  granred,  conveyed,  bargained,  fold  and  executed,  for  or 
concerning  the  faid  Ifland,  or  any  part  or  place  within  the  fame,  or  in 
anyCounty  thereof,tocall  &r  denominate  the  faid  [Hand  in  all  fuchDecds 
and  Elcripts,  as  aforefaid,  The  Iflaxdof  Naffatv,  any  thing  contained  in 
any'former  AO.  to  the  contrary  hereof  in  any  ways  nJtwuhftanding. 


L  So  j 


An  A3  for  eftablishing  certain  T^tes  and  Duties  upon 
fuch  Goods  j  Wares  and.  Merchandise  as  shall  he 
brought  unto  their  Maje files  Beam  in  the  Weigh- 
Houfe  at  New-York. 

THe  Rcprefentatives  convened  in  Ucaciai  Aftembly  being  fenfibfe 
of  the  great  Charge  that  is  requifite  for  the  piwfcui  fupport  of  the 
Government  in  this  time  of  War,  and  being  al(b  willing  at  all  times  to 
rnanifeft  their  mod  dutiful  Affe&ions  unto  their  Majefties,withan  hum- 
ble and  thankful  Acknowledgment  of  their  Majeftiesmoft  gracious  aad 
tender  regard  to  their  Subjects  within  the  fame,  have  cheerfully  and 
unanimoufly  given  and  granted  unto  their  Majefties  an  Aid  and  Affift* 
ance  for  the  better  defraying  the  neceflary  Charge  of  the  Government, 
toberaifed  and  levied  upon  all  fueh  Goods,  Wares  and  Merchandizes 
that  (hail  be  brought  unto  their  Majefties  Beam  in  the  Weigh-Houfe  at 
Atetp-7<>r*,according  to  fuch  Rates  &■  Duties^?  during  fuch  Time,and  in 
fuch  manner  and  form  as  herein  after  followeth.  And  they  humbly  praf 
that  it  may  be  Enafted,  And  be  it  therefore  EnaStedby  the  Gevernour  sni 
Council,  and  Reprefentdtives  convened  in  General  Aflemtty,  Amd it  is  hrrtby 
Emitted  by  the  Authority  of  the  fame,  That  all  the  Goods,  Wares  and  Mer- 
chandises herein  after  turned  and  expreifed,  that  (hall  from  and  after 
the  Publication  hereof  be  Imported  to,  and  Exported  from  this  City,  or 
that  fhall  be  bought  and  (bid,  bartered  or  exchanged  within  the  lame, 
(hall  be  firft  brought  unto  their  Majefties  Beam  at  the  Weigh-Houfe 
aforeiaid,  and  be  there  weighed.  And  for  weighing  the  fame  there  (hall 
be  anfwered  and  paid  unto  their  Majefties  Collector  and  Receiver  Ge- 
neral for  the  time  being,  or  to  fuch  Perfon  or  Perfons  as  he  (hall  autho- 
rize for  the  attending  and  receiving  the  fame,  the  Ratesand  Duties  here- 
after named,  eftablifhed  andexpreffed,  that  is  to  fay,  For  all  lortsof  Silk 
"Ware  above  one  Hundred  weight,  Nine  Pence  per  Hundred  Weight; 
Floret  or  Worfted,  the  fame;  Cochanella,  the  fame ;  Saifron,  the  fame. 
Indigo  exported  only,  fix  Pence  per  Hundred  Weight,  nothing  for  Im- 
portation Confe£tures,ihe  fame ;  all  forts  of  Spices,  the  fame;  Sp**$> 
Leather,  the  fame.  Sugar,  Two  Pence  half  penny  per  Hundred  weight 
exported,  nothing  at  Importat  ion  ;  Candles,  the  fame.  Tobacco,  two 
Pence,  the  fame.  Sarfaparilla,  three  pence,  the  fame  ;  Ivory,  the  (ame. 
All  forts  of  Dye  Wood,  three  halfpence  per  Hundred  weight,  exported 
only.  Wool  and  Cotten  Wool,  three  pence ,  rhe  fame.  Dry  Hides,  Ettt 
and  Deer  Skins,  twopence,  the  fame.  Butter,  three  pence,  the  fame  ; 
Cheefe,  the  fame .  Starch,  the  fame,  both  exported  and  imported;  alfo 
Tallow,  threepence,  exported;  Ginger,  the  fame ;  Hops,  the  fame; 
Dry  Fifru  two  pence,  the  fame;  Brimftonc,  two  pence,  the  fame,  im- 
ported ;  Rozen,  two  pence  the  fame,  exported  only.    Cordage,  three 


C8i  1 

pence,  the  fame ;  Grocery  Ware,  two  pence,  ths  farac  \  Bread,  one 
penny ,  the  fame ;  Flower,  t  he  fame ;  Pitch*  two  pence,  the  fa  ac.  And 
thac  all  broken  Weights  fhall  pay  in  proportion  accordingly. 

Md  be  if  further  Ensued by tht  Authority  sfirefdi  itT  hat  all  other  fpedes 
of  Goods,  Wares  and  Merchandizes  that  are  not  herein  named  and  ex- 
prcfled,  8r  fhall  voluntarily  be  brought  by  any  Perfon  or  Perfbns  within 
the  fame,  to  be  weighed,  as  aforefaid,  ihall  for  fuch  their  weighing  pay 
fcfter  the  Rites  and  Duties  hereby  eftabljlhed,  and  not  other  wile. 

And  for  the  better  collecting  and  paying  ths  Rates  and  Duties  afore- 
faid, Be  it  further  En&elhy  tht  Authority  af ore/aid,  That  all  Fuch  Perfon 
or  Perforrs  that  from  and  after  the  time  aforefaid,  That  fhall  import  to 
or  export  from  this  City,  or  fhall  buy,  fell,  barter  or  exchange  within 
the  fame,  any  the  Goods,  Wares  and  Merchandizes  afbre-mentioned, 
enumerated  and  expreffed,  without  bringing  the  fame  unto  their  Maje- 
fties  Beam,  aforefaid,  and  there  anfwer  and  pay  the  Rates  and  Duties 
hereby  eftablifhed  as  aforefaid,  fhall  then  and  for  lb  often  as  he  or  they 
Ihall  negleft  or  refute  to  do  the  fame,  pay  or  forfeit  unto  their  laid  Ma. 
jeftiesthe  fumof  two  Shillings  and  fix  Pence^  currant  Moncyaforcfaid, 
for  each  Hundred  weight  of  fuch  Goods,  Wares  and  Merchandizes,  as 
aforefaid,  that  fhall  be  denyed  or  refufed  to  be  weighed  as  aforefaid,  to 
be  recovered  before  any  Jufticeof  the  Peace  within  the  faid  City,  or  in 
any  Court  within  the  fame,  by  Bill,  Plaint  or  Information,  one  naff 
unto  their  Majefties,  their  Heirs  and  Succeffors,  and  the  other  half  to 
the  Informer  or  Profecutor,  who  ftrall  fue  for  the  fame ,  together 
with  colts  of  Profecution.  Provided  alwayes,  That  the  Regulation, 
tor  any  part  thereofjfhall  not  extend  to  com  pell  any  Free-holder  withia 
this  Provinccto  bring  his  Goods  to  be  weighed,  who  fhall  fwear  upon 
the  holy  Evangelift,  bona,  fid*,  That  all  fuch  Gc^di  exported  or  imported,  art 
hii  own  proper  Eftate>  and  that  no  other  Perfon  hath  kirettly  or  indirect fy  any 
Inttnft  therein,  but  that  they  are  exported  or  imported  upon  hij  own  proper 
Account  t»d  Rifco.    Which  if  fuch  a  Perfon  fhall  be  found  falfly  to  I  we  at 
in  the  Premifes,  fhall  be  profecuted  againft  asone  convicl  of  willfuli 
Perjury.    And  that  the  Colle&or,  or  fwch  Perfon  as  he  fhall  appoint, 
fhall  be  impowcred  to  adminifter  fu6h  an  Oath. 


A&spaffed  in  the  fixth  Seffions  of  General  Affem- 
bly,  begun  the  1 2th  of  September,  1 

An  Acl/or  fetthngaMiniflry  is  raifing  aAtaintenance 
for  them  in  the  City  o/New-York,  County  o/Rich* 
mond,  Weftchefter  and  Queens  County^ 

WHereas  Prophanenefs  &•  Lifcentioufnefs  hath  of  lace  over-fpread 
thisProvinse  for  want  of  a  fettled  Miniftry  throughout  the  fame, 
X  To 


L  *2  ] 

To  the  end  the  fame  may  be  removed,  and  the  Ordinances  of  Cod  daily 
adminiftred,  Be  it  Enacted  by  the  Governor  &  Council,  and  Reprefentatroes 
convened  in  General  Ajfembly,  and  by  the  Authority  of  the  fame,  That  in  each 
of  the  refpeftirc  Cities  and  Counties  hereafter  mentioned  &  expreffed, 
there  fhall  be  called,  inducted  and  efrablifhea*  a  good  fu ffici en t  Froze/?**/ 
Mtpifier,  to  officiate  and  have  the  care  of  5ouIs,within  one  year  next  and 
after  the  publication  hereof,  That  is  to  fay,  In  the  City  of  New-lork  One, 
in  the  County  of  Richmond  one,  in  the  County  of  Wettchefter  two,  one 
to  have  the  care  of Weflchejler,  Eafchefer,  Teanches  and  the  Mannor  of 
Vellham,  the  othei  to  have  the  care  of  Rye,  Manerenotk  and  Bedford;  in 
Queens  County  two,  one  to  have  the  care  of  Jamaica,  and  the  adjacent 
Towns  &  Farms,  the  other  to  have  the  Care  of  Htmpjttdt  and  the  next 
adjacent  Towns  and  Farms. 

And  for  their  relpe&ive  Encouragement,  tie  it  further  Enaeled  by  the 
Authority  of oref aid,  That  there  fhall  be  annually  and  once  in  every  Year 
in  every  of  the  refpective  Cities  and  Counties  aforefaid,  affefled,  levyed, 
collected  and  paid  for  the  maintenance  of  each  of  their  refpective  Mini* 
fters  the  refpeclive  fums  hereafter  mentioned,  that  is  to  fay,  For  the 
City  &  County  of  Ne»-Tortt,  One  Hundred  Pounds;  for  the  two  Pre- 
cincts ofPVcJtcheJfer,  one  hundred  Pounds,  to  each  fifty  Pound,  to  be  paid 
in  Country  Produce  at  Money  price.  For  the  County  of  Richmond  forty 
Pound,  inCountry  Produce  at  Money  price.  And  for  the  two  Precincts 
of  Queens  County  one  hundred  and  twenty  Pounds,  to  each  Cxty  Pound, 
in  Country  Produce  at  Money  price. 

And  for  the  more  orderly  railing  the  refpective  Maintenances  for  the 
Minifters  aforefaid,  Beit  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That 
the  refpective  Juftices  of  every  City  and  County  aforefaid,  or  any  two  of 
them,  fhall  every  year  ilTue  out  theirWarrants  to  theConftables,  to  fiim- 
mon  the  Free-holders  of  every  City, County  &  Precinct  aforefaid,together. 
on  the  2d  Tuefday  in  January,  for  the  chufing'of  ten  Veftry-men  &  two 
Church- Wardens,  8c  the  faid  Juftices  and  Veftrymen  or  major  part  of 
them,  are  hereby  impowcred,  within  ten  daysafter  the  laid  day,  or  any 
day  after,as  to  them  mall  fec,m  convenicnt,to  lay  arealondble  Tax  on  the 
laid  refpectif  e  Cities,  County,  Parifh  or  Precinct,  for  the  Maintenance  of 
the  Miniftcr  and  foor  of  their  refpective  places.    And  ifthey  fhall  neg- 
lect to  ifTae  their  Warrants,fo  as  the  Election  be  not  made  that  da> ,  thejr 
fhall  refpedtively  forfeit  five  Pound  currant  Money  of  this  Province* 
And  in  cafe  the  faid  Free-holders  duely  fummoned,  as  aforefaid, fhall  not 
appear,  or  appearing  donotchufethe  faid  ten  s'eftry  -men  3r  to  Church- 
Ward  ens,rhat  then  in  their  default,  the  faid  Juftices  fhall  within  ten  days 
after  the  faid  fecond  Tuefday,  or  in  any  day  alter,  as  to  them  fhall  feem 
convenient,  lay  the  faid  reafonableTaxon  the  faid  refpective  places,  for 
the  refpective  Maintenances  aforefaid.  And  if  the  laid  lultices  &  Veftry- 
men fhall  neglect  their  Duty  herein,  they  fhall  refpectively  forfeit  6vc 
Pound  currant  Money  aforefaid. 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  fuch  of  the^ 
Juftices  and  Veftry-men  that  fhall  not  be  prefent  at  the  time  appointed, 
to  jnake  the  faid  Tax,  and  thereof  be  convicted,  by  a  Certificate  under 

the 


C  8*  3 

the  hands  of  fuch  as  do  appear,  &  have  no  fufficient  Excufe  for  the  fame, 
fhall  rdpc&ively  forfeit  five  Pound  currant  Money  aforefaid.  And  a 
Roll  of  the  faid  Tax,  fo  made,  fhallbe  delivered  into  the  hands  of  the 
refpectiveConftables  of  the  faid  Cities,  Counties,  Parifhes,  and  Precin&s, 
with  a  Warrant  figned  by  any  two  Juftices-  of  the  Peace,  impowering 
him  or  them  to  levy  the  faid  Tax,  and  upon  refufal,  to  diftrain,  and  fell 
by  publick  Out-cry,  and  pay  the  fame  into  the  hands  of  the  Church- 
Wardens,  retaining  to  himlelf  1 2  d.  p er  Pound,  for  levying  thereof. 
And  if  any  Perfcm  fhall  refute' to  pay  what  he  is  fb  a  Med,  and  the  faid 
Conftablesdo  ft  rain  for  the  fame,  all  hisCharges  fhall  be  paid  him,  with 
fuch  further  allowance  for  his  pains  as  the  faid  Juftices  or  any  of  them 
fhall  judge  reafonable.  And  if  the  faid  Juftice  or  Juftices  fhall  neglect 
to  iffue  the  faid  Warrant,  he  or  they  refpectively  fhall  forfeit  five  Pounel 
currant  Money  aforefaid.  And  if  the  faid  Conftables,  or  any  of  them, 
fail  of  their  Duty  herein  they  fhall  refpeftively  forfeit  five  Pound  currant 
Money  aforefaid.  And  the  Church- Wardens  fb  chofen  fhall  undertake 
the  faid  Office,  and  receive  and  keep  a  good  Account  of  the  Monyes  or 
Goods  levyed  by  virtue  of  this  Act,  and  the  fame  iffue  by  order  from 
the  faid  Juftices  and  Veftry-men  of  the  re  fpc&ive  Cities,  Counties,  Pre« 
cintts  and  Parifhes  aforefaid,  for  the  purpofes  and  intents  aforefaid,  ant! 
not  otherwife.  And  the  Church- Wardens  fh^ll,  as  often  as  thereunto 
required,  yeild  an  Account  unto  the  Juftices  and  Veftry-men,  of  all 
their  Receipts  and  Disburfemeats.  And  in  cafe  the  Church*  Wardens 
or  any  of  them  fhall  neglect  their  Duty  herein,  they  fhall  refpectively 
forfeit  five  Pound  currant  Money  aforefaid,  for  every  refufal. 

And  (re  it  further  Enafted  by  the  Authority  df*refaidf  That  the  faid 
Church- Wardens  in  their  refpective  Precincts  aforefaid,  shall  by  Warrant 
as  aforefaid,  pay  unto  the  ref  pective  Minifters  the  Maintenance  afore- 
faid, by  four  equal  and  quarterly  Payments,  under  the  Penalty  anil 
Forfeiture  of  fne  Pound  currant  Money  aforefaid,  for  each  neglect* 
refufal  or  default ;  The  one  half  of  all  which  Forfeitures  shall  be  diu 
pofedof  to  rhe  ufe  of  the  Poor  in  each  refpective  Precinct  where  the 
fame  doth arife,  and  the  other  half  to  him  or  them  that  fhall  profecutc 
the  fame. 

Alwayes  provided,  and  Beit  further  Erttftedby  the  Authority  afore fatd^ 
Thatall  and  every  of  the  refpective  Minifters  that  fhall  be  ferried  into, 
the  refpe&ive Cities,  Counties  and  Prccin&s  aforefaid,  fhall  be  called 
to  officiate  in  their  refpective  Precincts,  by  the  refptctive  Vefttvmen 
and  Church  Wardens  aforefaid.  And  alwayes  provided,  That  all 
former  agreements  made  with  Minifters  throughout  this  Province, 
fhall  continue  and  remain  in  their  full  force  and  virtue,  any  thing  con- 
tained h«rein  to  the  contrary  hereof  in  any  ways  notwithftanJing, 


t  84  3 


An  A3  confirming  is  continuing  unto  their  Majrfties 
the  Revenue  eft ab lis bed  by  an  Ail  of  General  Aftm- 
bly7  made  in  the  \th  Year  of  their  Majefttes  Reign, 
for  defoying  the  public k  and  necejfary  Charges  of 
the  Gwtrnment^  five  Teats  longer  than  the  Term 
therein  mentioned 

THe  Reprefentatives  convened  in  General  Afftmbly  taking  mm 
their  ferious  Confidsrauoo  the  extraordinary  Expence  chat  the 
Defence  of  this  Province  requires  from  their  Majefries,  daring 
this  term  of  War,  and  being  willing  on  all  occa  flora  to  gire  Demon  ft  ra- 
tion of  their  conftant  Loyalty  and  dutiful  Affections  unto  their  mod 
Excellent  Majeftics,  do  humbly  pray  tod  befeech  that  the  Revenue 
given  and  granted  unto  their  rnoft  Sacred  Majefries  for  the  term  of 
Two  Years,  by  an  Act  of  General  Affembly  made  in  the  fourth  Yea* 
of  their  Majefties  Reign,  Brtitulcd,  An  A&  for  tjt&hifotng  a  Revemm 
i$M  their  M^efttes  fir  ike  &( frying  the  PfdluJc  and  Nctt§*rj  Charges 
if  tbt  Governments  may  be  continued  and  confirmed  unto  thoi? 
moft  Excellent  Majefries  for  the  time  and  fpace  of  five  Years  nexr  after 
the  expiration  of  the  Term  of  the  two  Years  afbrefaid,  and  humbly  be- 
feech that  it  may  be  Enacted,  AnAbeit  therefore  Emend  by  the  Q$vtmo*t 
*nd  Council,  and  Reprefentatives  tenveneJ  in  General  AJf entity,  and  iy  the 
Authority  $f the  fame,  That  the  Rates,  Dunes  and  Excite  made  payable 
upon  Merchandizes,  Furs  and  Liquors,  fhall  be  levyed,  collected  and 
paid  unto  their  moft  Excellent  Majefties  for  the  term  and  fpace  of  five 
years  next  and  after  the  expiration  of  the  term  linmted  in  the  laid  Act, 
to  commence  and  be  eompttted  from  the  1  &th  day  of  May,  which  /hall 
be  in  the  Year  of  our  Lord  iaQ{.  according  to  fuch  Rules  and  Di- 
rections, and  under  fuch  Pains  and  Forfeitures  as  w  contained  and 
enjoy ned  by  the  faid  Aft.  And  the  aforefaid  Act,  and  every  Article* 
Rub  and  Claufe  therein  mentioned  fhall  he,  abide  and  remain  in  fuH 
force  and  effect,  to  all  intents  and  purpofes>  during  the  laid  Term  of 
five  Years,  and  no  longer,  as  fairy  and  in  like  manner  as  iff  the  lame 
were  particularly  and  at  large  recited  anklet  down  in  the  Body  of  this 
Aft,  any  thing  contained  thoroia  to  th«  contrary  hereof  in  any  wayes 
notwithstanding. 


CO 


Province  of  New- York,  ff. 

Anno  Rcgni   Gulielmi  &  Mans. 
REGIS  &  REGINJ?, 

Angliac,  Scotise,  Francise  &  Hibetnise, 

Q  U  I  N  T  O. 


r An  ACT  for  Retraining  and  PunisbingTrivateers 

and  'Pjrates. 

WHereas  nothing  can  more  contribute  to  their  Majefties  Honour 
than  filch  Articles  as  are  concluded  and  agreed  on  in  a)  I 
Treaties  of  Peace,  fliould  by  all  their  Majefties-  Subjects, 
according  to  their  Duty,  be  mod  inviolably  prefer  ved  and  kept,  in  and 
over  all  their  Majefties  Dominions  and  Territories.  And  whereas  agaiuft 
fuch  Treaties  of  Peace  made  between  their  Majefties  and  their  Allies, 
fcveral  of  their  Majefties  Subjectts  do  continually  fail  Under  Com- 
Ksifl&ons  of  Forreign  Princes  and  States,  contrary  to  their  Doty  and 
good  Allegiance,  and  by  fair  means  cannot  be  refrrained  from  fo  doing, 
Be  it  therefore  Enacted  by  the  Governor,  Council  and  Affembly,  and 
it  is  hereby  Enacted  by  the  Authority  of  the  lame,  That  from  and 
after  Publication  hereof,  it  Ihall  be  Feilony  for  any  Perfbn  which  now 
doth  or  hereafter  (hall  inhabit  in  or  belong  to  thk  Province,  to  fcrve 
in  Amtrie*  in  an  Koftile  manner  under  any  Forreign  Prince,  State. or 
Potentate  in  Amity  with  their  Majefties,  without  {pecial  lifence  for 
ft)  doing,  under  the  Hand  and  Seal  of  their  Majefties  Governor  or 
Commander  in  Chief  of  this  Province  for  the, time  being/ and  that  aU 
and  every  fuch  Offender  and  Offender*,  contrary  to  the  true  intent  o£ 
this  Act,  being  thereof  duely  conyicted  in  their  Majefties  Court  of  Judi-^ 
cature  within  this  Province  (to,  which  Courts  Authority  is  hereby  RivefT 
fo  hear  and  determine  the  lame,  ss  other  safes  of  EcUony)  .jQsail  fuff& 

A  *  pain* 


C  *  ) 

pains  of  Death,  without  benefit  of  Clergy.  Provided  nevefthelefs  that 
this  A&,  nor  anv  thing  therein  .contained,  iball  exiend  to  any  Perfon 
or  Peifbns,  which  now  are  or  have  been  in  the  Service  or  Imployment 
of  any  forreign  Prince,  State  or  Potentate  whatfoever,  that  fhall  return 
to  this  Province,  and  leave  and  defer:  fuch  Service  and  tmploymeat, 
before  the  firft  day  of  September  next  enfuing,  rendring  themfelves  to 
sheir  Majefties  Governour  or  Commander  in  Chief  for  the  time  being, 
and  giving  fuch  Security  as  he  fhal  appoint,  for  iheir  future  good 
Behaviour,  and  alio  that  they  fhall  not  depart  this  Province  without 
the  Lifence  of  their  Majefties  Governour  or  Commander  in  chief. 

And  for  the  better  and  more  fpeedy  Execution  of  Juftice  upon  fuch 
who  having  committed  Pyracies,  Fellonies,  jaod  other  Offences  upon 
the  Sea,  fh&H  be  apprehended  in  or  brought  prifoners  to  this  Province, 
Be  it  further  enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  all  Fellonyes, 
pyracies,  Roberies,  Maiders,  or  Confederacies  committed,  that  here- 
after (hall  be  committed  upon  the  Sea,  or  in  any  Haven,  Creek  ox 
Bay,  within  the  Jurifchftion  of  the  Admirality,  fball  be  enquired,  tryed, 
freard,  determined  and  judged  in  fuch  Form  as  if  fuch  Offence  had  been 
committed  in  and  upon  the  Land,  aad  to  that  end  and  purpole  Com- 
Saifrions  fhall  be  had  under  their  Majefties  Seal  of  this  Province,  directed 
«o  the  Judge  or  Judge6  of  the  Admirality  of  this  Province  for  the  time 
seeing,  and  to  fuch  other  fubftantial  perfons,  as  by  their  Majefties  Go- 
vernour or  Commander  in  chief  of  this  Province,  for  tlie  time  being* 
Jhall  be  named  or  appointed ;  which  (aid  Commiuioners,  or  fuch  % 
Quorum  of  them,  as  by  fuch  Commotion  fhall  be  thereunto  authorized, 
Ihall  have  full  Power  to  do  all  things  in  and  about  the  enquiry,  hearing, 
determining,  adjudging  and  punifhing  ot  any  of  the  Crimes  and 
^Jflences  aforefaid,  as  any  Oommiflioners  appointed  by  Commifliort 
junder  the  great  Seal  of  England,  by  virtue  of  a  Statute  made  in  the 
Twenty  Eight  Year  of  the  Reign  of  King  Henry  the  eight,  are  Ira^ 
powered  to  do  and  execute  within  the  Kingdom  of  Eegliwi.  And 
chat  the  (aid  Offenders  which  are  or  fhall  be  apprehended  in  or  brought 
Prifoners  to  this  Province,  (hall  be  lyable  to  fuch  Order,  Procefs, 
Judgment  and  Execution,  by  Virtue  of  fuch  Commillion  to  be  grounded 
upon  this  Act,  as  might  be  awaided  or  given  again!*  them,  if  they 
were  proceeded  againft  within  the  Realm  of  EngUpd,  by  Virtue  of  any 
CbrnrnuTion  grounded  upon  the  laid  Statute. 

Be  it  further  Enaaed  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  all  and  every 
perfon  or  perfons  that  fhall  any  way  Knowingly  entertain,  harbour, 
conceal,  trade,  or  hold  any  correspondence  by  Letters,  or  otherwife, 
*vuh  any  perfon  or  perfons  that  fhall  be  deemed  or  judged  to  be 
Privateers,  Pyrates,  or  other  Offenders  within  the  Conftruftion  of 
this  Act ,  and  fhall  not  readily  endeavour ,  to  the  beft  of  his  and 
™*  P°wcr»  to  apprehend,  orcaufe  to  be  apprehended  fuch  O.fender 
<*  Q&Qdcrs,  flull  be  lyable  to  be  profecuted  againft,  as  Acccuaries 

and 


( ? ; 

and  Confederate,  to  fuffer  fuch  pains  and  penalties,  as  in  in  fach  cafe 
by  Law  is  provided. 

And  for  the  better  and  more  effe&ual  Execution  of  this  A£,  Be 
it  further  Ena&ed  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  all  Commiffion 
Officers,  in  their  feveral  Prrcin£ts  within  this  Province,  arc  hereby 
required  and  impowered,  upon  his  or  their  Knowledge,  or  Notice 
given,  That  any  Privateers,  Pyrates,  or  other  Perfons,  fufpe£fced 
to  be  upon  any  Unlawful  Defign ,  are  in  any  place  within  their 
refpe&ive  Pr«cin6ts,  to  raife  and  levy  fuch  Number  of  well  Armed 
Men,  as  he  or  they  fhall  think  needfull,  for  the  feizing,  apprehend- 
ing, and  carryinig  to  Goal  all  and  cfrery  fuch  perfon  and  perfons, 
and  in  cafe  of  any  Refiftance,  or  Refufal  to  yiel  1  Obedience  to  their 
Majefties,  Authority  ,  .  it  fhall  be  lawful  to  Kill  or  Deftroy  fuch 
Perfon  or  Perfons.  And  all  and  every  Perfon  or  Perfons  that  fhall 
Oppoie  or  Refift,  by  Striking  or  Firing  upon  any  of  the  Command- 
ed  Parties ,  fhall  be  deemed,  taken  and  adjudged  Fellons,  without 
Benefit  of  the  Clergy.  And  every  fuch  Otficer  that  fhall  omit  of 
negleft  his  Duty  herein ,  fhall  forfeit  Fifty  Pounds  currant  Money 
of  this  Province  for  every  fuch  Oifence,  to  be  Recovered  in  any  of 
their  Majefties  Courts  of  Record  within  this  Province,  by  Bill,  PlairtS 
or  Information,  wherein  is  no  Effbyn,  Wager  of  Law  or  ProteAioE 
feall  be  allowed,  one  moiety  thereof  to  be  to  their  Majefties,  tfoeif 
Heirs  and  Succefiors,  for  and  toward  the  fupport  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  this  Province,  and  the  contingent  Charges  thereof,  and 
the  other  moiety  to  the  Informer.  And  all  and  every  Perfon  anJ 
Perfons  that  upon  Orders  given  him  or  them,  fhall  refute  to  repair 
immediately,  with  his  or  their  Arms  well  fixed,  and  Amunitionp 
10  futh  place  or  places  as  fhall  be  appointed  by  any  fuper  O  Beer  or 
Officers,  and  not  readily  Obey  his  or  their  Commands,  in  the  Ex- 
ecution of  the  Premifes,  fhall  be  lyable  to  fuch  Fine  or  Corporal  Pa* 
nilhment  as  fha41  be  awarded  againft  them  within  the  Courts  to  which 
the  Recognizeance  of  the  Fa&  doth  belong. 


FIN  IS. 


An  AGt  for  Granting  to  their  Majefties  the  Rate  of 
One  Penny  per  Pound  upon  all  the  Real  and  Per- 
fonal  Eftates  within  this  Province  of  ^(ew-Tor^ 
&c.  To  be  allowed  unto  his  Excellency  the  Go- 
vernour,  for  the  Care  of  the  Province,  ZNjwembct 
the  1 2th,  1692. 

THe  Representatives  convened  in  General  AfTembly,  in  all  humble  and 
dutiful  Acknowledgement  of  their  Majeftiej  moft  Gracious  Favour 
and  Regard  to  the  Subjects  of  this  Province,  by  CommifRorUting 
and  Appointing  over  them,  aPerfbntobe  their  Governour,  who  is  endued 
with  moft  excellent  Qualities,  and  hath  given  moft  fignal  Dcmonftration  of 
his  conftant  Loyalty  and  Fidelity  unto  their  Majefties,  by  his  prudent  care 
and  conduct,  fince  his  arrival  into  this  their  Majefties  Province,  and  who  by 
his  unwearied  vigilcnce  hath  vifitcd  the  Frontiers  of  the  feme,  and  hath  put 
them  hito  fuch  pofture  as  that  all  the  Subjects  are  in  fafety,  tho'  inviron'd 
with  a  powerfull  Enemy ;  In  the  deepeft  Sence  thereof  become  humble  Sup- 
pliants unto  their  moft  Excellent  Majefties,  and  pray  that  they  would  be  srgu 
cioufly  pleated  to  accept,  as  a  token  of  their  moft  Loyal  and  Sincere  Affection 
unto  their  Majefties,  and  their  Government  eftablifhed  here,  One  Penny  for 
every  Pound  value  of  all  the  Real  and  Perfbnal  Eftates  of  all  and  every  the- 
Free-holders  and  Inhabitants  within  this  their  Majefties  Province  and  Depen- 
dancies;  and  dolikewite  humbly  pray,  that  your  moft  excellent  Majefties 
would  be  pleated  to  give  &  allow  the  fame  unto  Benjamin  Fhtcber  £fq;  Capt, 
General  and  Governourin  chief  in  and  over  their  Maicfties  Province  of  Akw- 
Tork,  and  Territories  thereon  depending,  in  Jmericsy  and  pray  that  it  be 
fo  enacted. 

Be  it  therefore  enacted  by  the  Governour  and  Council,and  Repretentativci 
convened  in  General  Alfembly,  and  by  the  Authority  of  the  fame,  That 
tfiere  be  AfTeffed,  Levyed  and  Collected  One  Penny  foreverv  Pounds  value 
of  all  the  Real  and  Perfbnal  Eftates  of  all  and  every  the  Free-holde-s  and 
Inhabitants  within  this  Province  and  Dependencies,  to  be  afTelTed,  levyed, 
ccHe&ed  and  paidyin  manner  and  form  following,  that  is  to  fay,  The  one  half 
©rrnoyetyof  theaforelaid  Aflefmentsof  One  Penny  for  every  Pounds -value 
of  all  the  Real  and  Perfbnal  hftares,  asaforefaid,  to  be  altered,  levyed,  col- 
lected and  paid  unto  their  Majefties  Receiver  General  at  Ne^v-Tork,  at  or  be- 
fore the  firft  day  of  Septcmbtr  next,  which  (hall  be  in  the  Year  of  our  Lord 
OncThoufand  MX  Hundred  Ninety  and  Three,  and  the  orher  half  or  nioyety 
of  the  faid  Aflefment  to  be  paid  in  like  manner  at  or  before  ihc  firrt  day  of 
SetKmbtr  then  next  following,  which  .(hall  be  in  the  Year  of  our  Lord  One 
Thoufand  Six  Hundred  Minety  and  Four- 
And  fcr  the  more  due  and  orderly  Collection  of  the  AuVoat nt  sforefaii 


^  *  ) 

Be  it  further  enafted  by  the  Authority  afore/aid,  That  the  Mayor  and 
Aldermen  within  the  City  of  New-Tork  for  the  time  being,  and  the  Mayor 
and  Aldermen  within  the  City  of  Mbtwy  iot  the  time  being,  and  the  Jufticcs 
of  thcPeaee  for  the  time  being,for  the  feveral  and  refpective  Counties  with- 
in this  Province,  for  the  feveral  Counties  refpeftively,  for 'the  which  they 
jhallbc  Jufticcs  of  the  Peace,  do  within  fix  Months  after  Publication  hereof 
affemble  and  meet  together  in  the  Court  Houfes,  for  the  feveral  refpeftive 
Cities  and  Counties,  or  fuch  other  place  or  places  as  they  fhall  agree  among 
themfelves,  and  fhall  there  order,  That  the  AfTefTors  and  Collectors  foe  the 
feveral  and  refpe&ive  Cities,  Towns,  Mannours,  and  Liberties,  within  their 
feveral  Jurifdi&ions,  for  the  affefling,  collecting  and  receiving  of  the  Publick 
Rates,  fbn  the  defraying  of  the  Publick  and  NecefTary  Charge  of  each 
refpeftive  City  and  County  aforefaid,  be  the  AfTcfTors  and  Collectors  for  the 
affefling,  collecting  and  receiving  the  Rate  of  One  Penny  per  Pound,  asaforo* 
faid,  as  to  the  faid  Mayors  and  Aldermen  and  Juftices  of  the  Peace  lhall  feem 
■Aee*  and  reafbnable. 

And  forafmuch  as  there  are  feveral  Man nors  and  Jurifdi&ions  within  the 
refpeftive  Counties  aforefaid,  who  neglect,  and  do  not  elect  annually,  or 
once  every  year  AfTefTors  and  Collectors,  whereby  the  intent  of  this  Ad  may 
be  fruftrated,  Be  it  therefore  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  if 
the  rcfocftive  Mannours  and  Jurifdictions  within  the  feveral  Counties  afore- 
Jl&J,  (nail  refufe  or  neglect  to  elect  AfTefTors  and  Collectors,  for  the  affefling 
their  refpeftive  Mannours  and  Jurifdictions,  and  for  the  Collecting  the  fame, 
according  to  the  intent  and  direction  of  this  Act;  Then  and  in  fuch  cafe  the 
Juftices  of  the  Peace  of  the  County  where  fuch  Mannours  or  Jarifdictions 
are,  Are  hereby  impowered  and  authorized  to  nominate  and  appoint  Affef- 
fors'and  Collectors,  forfucb  Mannorsand  Jurifdiftions  as  fhall  negleft  and 
yefufe  as  aforefaid;  which  AfTefTors  and  Collectors  fhall,  to  all  intents  and 
purpofes,  obferve  the  directions  of  this  Act,  any  thing  contained  herein  to 
the  contrary  hereof  in  any  wife  not  withftanding. 

And  be  it  further  enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,That  the  faid  Mayors* 
Aldermen  and  Juftices  of  the  Peace,  for  the  refpective  Cities  and  Counties, 
Mannors  and  Jurifdictions,  have  and  fhall  have  Power  and  Authority  by 
Virtue  of  this  Aft,  each  of  them  by  himfelf,  to  adminifter  an  Oath  to  the  faid 
Affeflors,  (Yell,  Truly,  Equally  and  Impartially,  in  due  Proportion,  as  it  [bad 
appear  to  them,  according  to  :heir  befi  Under  (landing,  to  ajft/'s  and  rate  the  Inha* 
bitanti,  Rcfi 'dent s  and  Freeholders  of  the  TtfptSivt  places •  for  nhich  they  (ball  U 
eboftn  jiJ[e.ffors, 

And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  if  any  Perfon 
orPeifons,  who  fhall  be  chofen  AfTefTors  and  Collectors,  fhall  deny,  negleft, 
or  unequally  or  partially  affefs  or  refufe  to  make  fuch  AfTefment,  as  by  this 
c\a  rcc*uir.ed>  or  A1311  deny,  negleft  or  refufe  to  collect  any  Sum  or  Sums 
of  Money,  m  form  a f  >re- mentioned  affeft,  that  then  and  in  fuch  cafe,  it 
SfcUandiiay  be  lawful  for  anj  two  Juftices  of  the  Peace  of  the  Cities  and 

Counties 


Counties  where  fuchO.Tenders  fhall  happen  to  dwell  or  refide,Sf  who  by  virtut 
of  tills  Aft,  are  required  and  impoweiei  to  do  the  fame  by  Warrant  under 
their  Hinds  and  Seak,  to  commit  fuch  Afleflbror  Affeflors,  Colle&or  or 
Colle&ors  fb  denying,  rtfcgte&ing  or  unequally  and  partiafly  aJTemng,  or  re- 
fttfing  to  collet,  as  aforefaid,  to  the  common  Goal,  there  to  remain  without 
Bayl  or  Maioprize  tiil  he  or  they  make  Pine  and  Ranforo  to  their  Majslives, 
as  afore  kid. 

And  be  it  further  elected  by  die  Authority  aforefaid,  That  if  any  Perfon 
or  Perfons,  of  whit  degree  o*  Quality  (bever  he  or  they  bd,  within  this 
Pcovince,  who  fhall  be  afFefted  or  rated  any  fum  or  fums  of  Money  by 
virtue  of  thts\4&  to  be  raifed  and  levyed,  (hall  deny,  refufe  or  delay  to  pay, 
and  ratify  the  lame,*  that  then  it  mail  and  may  be  lawful  for  any  uich  CoU 
le&or,  by  Virtue  of  a  Warrant  under  the  Hand  and  Seal  of  any  Juftice  of  the 
Peace  for  the  City  or  County  where  fuch  Offender  mall  dwell  or  refide, 
who  by  Virtue  of  this  A&  are  Required  and  Authorized  to  grant  and  iffue 
forth  luch  Warrant,  to  levy  the  fame  by  Diftrefs  and  Sale  of  fuch  Perfon 
or  Perfons  Goods  and  Chatties,  returning  the  Over-plus,  if  any  be,  to  the 
O  wners,  the  Sum  affeffed,  tand  Charges  of  Diftrds  and  Sale  being  fir  ft 
cbdu&ed. 

And  alio,  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  if  any 
Mayor,  Alderman  or  Juitice  of  the  Peace  within  this  Province,  who  are 
hereby  Required,  Impowered  and  Juthoiized  to  take  effectual  care  that 
this  A6t,  and  every  Article  and  Claufe  therein  be  duely  executed,  according 
to  the  true  intent  and  meaning  thereof,  fhall  deny,  negle&,  refufe  or  delay 
to  do,  perform,  fullB.ll  and  execute  all  and  every  or  any  the  Duties,  Powes 
and  Authorities,  by  this  A&  required  and  impoweredy  by  him  or  them  to 
he  done,  performed,  fullfiUedor  executed,  and  fhall  thereof  be  convicled 
before  his  Excellency,  the  Governour  and  Captain  General,  and  Council, 
or  before  any  of  their  Maiefties  Courts  of  Record  within  this  Province, 
lie  or  they  fhall  fuffer  fucli  pain,  by  Fine  and  Impritonment,  as  by  the 
dire  &  km  of  the  faid  Governor  and  Captain  General,  and  Council,  and  the 
Juftices  of  the  faid  Courts,  mail  be  adjudged. 

And  be  it  further  ena&ed  by  the  Authority  aforefaid ,   That  if  any 
Action,  Bill,  Plaint  or  Information  fhall  be  brought,  moved  or  prefentcd 
at  any  time  hereafter  againft  any  Perfon  or  Perfons,  for  any  Matter,  Claufe 
or  Thing,  done  or  a&edin  pnrfuance or  execution  of  this  Act,  fuch  Perfon 
cr  Perfons  fb  Sued  or  profecuted  in  any  Court  whatfbever,   fhall  and 
may  plead  the  general  Iflfue,  Not  Guilty \  and  give  this  -ct,  and  rhefpecial 
Matter  in  Evidence ;  and  if  the  Plantirf  or  Profecucor  fhall  be  NTon-fuited, 
or  forbear  further  Profecurion,  on.fuifer  Difcontinuance  or  V-.rdict  to 
pafs  againft  him,  the  Defendant  and  Ddfcrtdanrs  fhall  recover  Tribble 
Cods,  tor  which  they  fhall  have  the  like  Remedy,  as  in  die  where  Cofts 
by  the  JLaw  are  given  to  Ddendants. 


Provided 


(4) 


Provided  alwayes,  That  no  Mayor,  Alderman  or  Juittee  of  the  Peate 
£hall  be  troubled,  fued  or  molefted  for  any  OmifTion,  Orfeoce  or  N«g- 
lect  by  Virtne  of  this  Act,  but  within  the  fpace  of  one  Year  after  fiicb 
Omiffion,  Offence  or  Neglect,  and  not  any  time  hereafter,  any  thing  con- 
tained  herein  to  the  contrary  thereof  in  any  wife  notwithftanding. 

Always  Provided,  and  be-tt  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefeid, 
That  the  feveral  Collectors  of  each  refpective  City  and  County,  as  afoiefaid, 
fball  hav«  Hbertjr  to  pay  the  feveral  refpective  Sums  afleffed,  as  afbrclaid, 
at  the  Time  and  Days  aforefaid  in  Currant  Money  at  New-T*rk,  er  for 
want  thereof,  in  good,  fufficient  and  merchantable  Provifionc  at  the  currant 
Market  Price. 


F    I    N    I  9, 


Anno   Regni  Gulielmi  &  Marise, 

REGIS    &  REGlNiE, 
Anglise,  Scorise,  Francis  &  Hiberniae, 

Q  U  I  N  T  O. 

The  \otb  of  Aprils  Anno  Domini  1693. 

An  Aft  for  raifmg  fix  Tboufand  Found  for  the  payment 
of  three  Hundred  Volunteers  y  and  their  Officer 5,  to 
be  imployed  in  the  Re-inf or  cement  of  the  Frontiers  of 
this  Prow  nee  at  Albany,  from  the  fir  ft  of  May 
next ,  to  the  firfl  of  May  then  next  following,  in 
the  Tear  of  our  Lord  1 694. 

WHcrcas  upon  the  firft  day  of  Mty  next,  the  time  doth  expire, 
w  herein  the  Forces  lately  raifed  for  the  defence  of  the  Fron- 
tiers at  Aibauy,  were  to  abide,  which  continuing  ftill  daily 
expofed  to  the  Attempts  of  the  French,  their  Majeftics  declared  Enemies, 
it  is  of  aWblute  neceflity  that  they  fhould  from  the  faid  time  be  well 
Re-iGforced,  not  only  for  the  Prefervation  of  this  Province,  but  alfo  for 
the  Security  and  Defence  of  ail  their  Maiefties  Subjects  in  the  adjacent 
Colonies.    And  to  the  end  that  the  faid  purpofes  may  be  wall  and  truly 
effe&ed,  the  Reprefentatives  convened  in  General  AfTtmbly,  do  pray, 
that  his  Excellency  would  levy  or  caufc  to  be  levyed  in  this  and  the 
*djacent  Collonies  three  hundred  efFe&ual  Men,  Volunteers,  to  be 
formed  in  four  Companies  of  Souldiers,  and  imployed  in  their  Ma  jetties 
fervice,  for  the  fecuritv  and  defence  of  the  Frontiers  of  this  Province  at 
Jlbsty  and  there  to  continue  during  the  time  hereafter  mentioned  and 
exprelTed.   That  is  to  fay,  That  his  Excellency  doth  forth-with,  upon 
publication  hereof,  raife,  or  caufe  to  be  raifed,  as  aforefaid,  two  hun- 
dred effectual  men  Volunteers,  which  are  to  be  formed  into  four  Com- 
panies of  Souldiers,  as  aforefaid,  and  imployed  at  Jlbnuy ,  for  thiir 
Maiefties  Service,  as  aforefaid,  and  there  to  continue  in  the  faid  Service 
from  the  firft  day  of  Afrrnext,  until  the  firft  day  of  May  then  next  fol* 

B  lowing 


lowing,  that  fhall  be  in  the  Year  of  our  Lord  One  Thoufand  Six  Hun- 
dred Ninety  and  Four.  And  alfo,  That  his  Excellency  fhall  likewife 
raife  One  Hundred  effective  Men  Volunteers  more,  which  fhall  likewife 
fee  added  to  thejfour  Cornpaniwaforefaid,in  equal  Proportion,  and  pofted 
at  Albany,  as  aforelaid,  and  there  only  to  coi  t  nue  and  remain  from 
the  firft  day  of  November  next  enfuing,  until  che  fifteenth  day  of  Marck 
then  following,  and  no  longer.' 

And  that  his  Excellency  may  be  the  better  enabled  to  make  fuch  Levys 
as  aforefaid,  the  Reprefentatives  convened  in  genera!  AlTembly,  do  pray 
that  it  may  be  Ena&ed,  And  be  it  therefore  Ena&ed  by  the  Governour 
and  Council,  and  Reprefentatives  convened  in  general  Alfembly,  and 
by  the  Authority  of  the  fames  That  a  Levy  of  Six  Thouland  Pounds 
currant  Money  0/  thrs  Province  be  laid,  afTeffed,  railed  and  levyed  upon 
all  and  every  of  the  Inhabitants,  Refidenta  and  Free  holders  of  and  in 
this  Province,  &c.  for  the  paying  and  maintaining  of  the  laid  three 
hundred  Volunteers,  and  their  Officers,  together  with  the  incidental 
Changes  that  fhall  arife  rhereon,  according  to  the  Bftablifhment  here- 
unto annexed,  and  not  otherwife,  and  for  no  other  ufe,.  intent  or  purpofe 
whatfoever. 

To  be  laid,  afletfed,  raifed  and  levyed  in  each  refpe&ive  City  and 
County,  throughout  the  Province,  according  to  the  Rates,  Qjjota'tand 
Proportions  hereafter  following ;  that  is  to  fay, 

For  the  Gty  and  County  of  New-Tork,  One  Thdu&nd  Four  Hundred 
and  Fifty  Pounds,  being  their  Quota  and  Proportion  of  the  Levy  of  Six 
Thoufand  Pounds  aforelaid. 

For  the  County  of  Suffolk,  in  the  Ifland  of  N*Jf*P,  Twelve  Hundred 
Pounds,  being  their  Quota  and  Proportion,  as  aforelaid. 

For  Queens  County,  in  the  Ifland  of  Naffaw,  One  Thoufand  Pounds, 
being  their  Quota  and  Proportion,  as  aforefaid. 

For  Kj*&  County in  the  laid  Ifland  of  Naffaw,  Nine  Hundred  Pounds, 
being  their.  Quota  and  Proportion,  as  atore&d. 

For  the  County  of  Weftcbcftr  Five  Hundred  and  Sixty  Bounds,  being 
their  Quota  and  Proportion,  asaforefaid. 

For  the  County  of  Vlfterznd  Dutches  County,  Six  Hundred  &  Thirty 
Powtds,  being  their  Quota  and  Proportion,  asaforefaid. 

For  the  County  or  Richmond,  Two  Hundred  and  Thirty  Pounds, 
being  their  Quota  and  Proportion,  as  aforefaid. 

Ard  for  the  County  of  Orange  Thirty  Pounds,  being  their  Quota  and 
Proportion,  as  aforefaid. 

All  which  Quota's  and  Proportions,  as  aforefaid,  doth  in  the  whole 
amount  unto  the  Sum  of  Six  Thoufand  Pounds  currant  Money  afore- 
faid, which  faid  Sum  of  Six  Thoufand  Pound  fhall  well  and  truely  be 
paid  by  the  refpe&ive  Collectors  of  each  rerpe&ive  City  and  County 
aforefaid,  unto  their  Majefties  Collector  and  Receiver  General  for  the 
time  being,  at  their  Majeftie*  Cuftom  Houfe  in  the  City  of  New-Tori:, 
J*  coequal  Payments,  that  is  to  fay,  Three  Thoufand  Pounds  carrant 
Money  as  aforefaid,  being  the  one  moiety  or  equal  half  part  of  the  faid 


Thoufand  Pounds,  at  or  More  the  nine  and  twentieth  day  of  Sep/em&et 
next,  being  the  Feaft  Day  dFAMttM  the  Arch-  Angel.  Andtheothet 
three  Thouiand  Pounds  currant  Money  aforefaid,  being  the  other 
moiety  or  equal  half  part  of  the  Levy  aforefaid,  at  or  before  the  twenty 
fifth  day  o?  March  then  next  following,  being  the  Feaft  day  of  the 
Anunmtion  of  the  bleffed  Virgin  Mtryy  which  fhall  be  in  the  Year  of 
our  Lord  OneThoufard  Six  Hundred  Ninety  and  Four*  under  the  pa.ns 
and  penalties  herein  after  mentioned. 

And  that  the  laid  Sum  of  Six  Thoufand  Pounds,  according  to  the 
Quota's  and  Ptoportions  aforefaid,  mar  be  moft.iyudy  and  erfauahV 
afTefled,  raifed,  collected  and  paid  unto  their  Ma  jetties  [Receiver  General, 
in  manner  aforefaid  and  for  the  intent  and  purpofes  aforefaid,  Be  it 
ftrtfar  Ertatttd,  and  it  is  hereby  further  Enacted  bv  the  Authority 
aforefaid,  That  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen  wirhin  this  City  of  Ntw-Tork, 
for  the  time  being,  and  the  Jufticesof  the  Peace  for  the  time  being,  for 
thefeycrat  and  refpective  Cotn  ics  aforefaid,  for  the  feveraJ  Counties 
refpctlively,  for  the  winch  they  fhall  be  Juftices  of  the  Peaee,  do 
within  forty  days  after  Publication  hereof,  atTernble  and  meet  together 
in  the  Court  Houfes,  for  the  feveral  refpective  Cities  and  Counties,  or 
fuch  other  place  or  places  as  they  fhall  agree  upon  *mongft  themfeives, 
and  mail  there  order  that  Affcifors  and  Collectors  for  the  feveral  and 
refpective  Cities,  Towns,  Mannors,  and  Liberties  within  their  feveral 
Jurifdictions,  for  theafTcfling,  collecting  and  receiving  of  thcpublitlc 
Rares,  for  the  defraying  the  publfck  and  nece/ftry  Charges  of  eadi 
reflective  City  and  County  aforefaid,  be  the  AiTeffcrs  and  Collectors 
for  die  aflefling,  collecting  and  receiving  the  fum  or  fums  of  Money 
herein  before-mentioned,  according  to  ths  proportions  before  exprefled, 
as  to  the  faid  Mayor  "and  Alder-men  and  JuJtices  fhall  (eem  meet  and 
reafbnabte. 

And  forafinneffas  there  are  feveral  Mannors  and  Jurifdicrions  withia 
the  refpective  Counties  aforefaid,  who  neglect,  and  do  noteJect  annually 
cr  once  every  Year  Afftffors  and  Collectors,  •  whereby  the  intent  of  this 
Act  may  be  fruftrated,  Be  it  therefore  Enacted  by  the  Authority  afore- 
laid,  That  if  the  refpective  Mannors  and  Jurifdictions  within  the  feveral 
Counties  aforefaid,  fhall  refufe  or  neglect  to  elect  A  ffeffcrs  &•  Collectors 
fbrtheaffefling  of  their  refpective  Mannors  and  Jurifdictions,  and  for 
the  collecting  the  fame,  according  to  the  intent  and  direction  of  this 
Act,  then  and  in  fuch  cafe  the  Juftrces  of  the  Peaco  of  the  Counties 
where  fuch  Mannors  or  Jurifdictions  are,  are  hereby  impowercd  and 
authorized  to  nominate  and  appoint  AiTeffors  and  Collectors  for  fuch 
Mannors  and  Jurifdictions  as  Thall  neglect  or  refufe  asaforefaid ;  which 
AiTefTors  and  Cotlectors  fhall  to  all  intents  and  purpofb  obferve  the 
directions  of  this  Act,  any  thing  contained  herein  to  the  nontraty  hereof 
in  any  wile  notwithftanding. 

An* 


And  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  the  faid 
Mayor,  Aldermen  and  Juftices  of  the  Peace  for  the  re/pectivc  Cities 
and  Counties,  Mannors  and  Jurififictions  have  and  llial I  have  Power  and 
Authority  by  virtue  of  this  Act,  each  of  them  by  himfelf  to  adminifter 
an  Oath  tothciaid  Affeflbrs,  We&,  Truly^  h^udly  **d  faparthtlly,  and  in. 
due  Proforti**,  **  it  (bill  appear  to  them,  accenting  to  tbetr  btji  VneUrfland* 
ing,  to  ajfefiand  rate  the  Inhabit  ant s%  R  efidents  &  Ine-holders  of  the  refpeftive 
placet  for  which  they  JbaU  be  chefen  JJjeJfors. 

And  be  it  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  if  any  perlbn  00 
perfbns  who  (hall  becholen  AffefTors  or  Collectors,  fhall  deny,  neglect, 
or  unequally,  or  partially  aflefi,  orreiiifc  to  make  fuch  Alfefsment,  as 
by  this  Act  is  requind,  or  fhall  deny,  neglect  or  refufe  to  collect  any 
Sum  or  Sums  of  Money,  in  form  afore*  mentioned  afkft,  that  then  and 
in  fuch  cafe,  it  fhall  and  may  be  lawful  for  any  two  Juftices  of  the 
Peace  of  the  Cities  and  Counties  where  fuch  Offenders  fhall  happen  to 
dwell  or  refide,  &  who  by  virtue  of  this  Ad,  are  required  and  impower- 
ed  to  do  the  fame  by  Warrant  under  their  Hands  and  Seals,  to  commit 
foch  AfTeJTor  or  Affeflbrs,  Collector  or  Collectors  fo  denying,  neglect- 
ing or  unequally  and  partially  afleffingjOr  refufing  to  collect,  as  a  forefaid, 
to  the  common  Goal,  there  to  remain  without  Bay]  or  Mainprize  till  he 
or  they  make  Fine  and  Ranfbm  to  their  Majefties,  for  fuoh  Contempt, 
as  aforefaid. 

And  be  it  further  enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  if  any 
Perfon  or  Perfons,  of  what  Degree  or  Quality  foever  he  or  they  be, 
within  this  Province,  who  fhall  be  aiTefled  or  rated  any  fum  or  fums 
of  Money  by  virtue  of  this  Act  to  be  railed  and  levyed,  fhall  deny,  refufe 
or  delay  to  pay  and  fatify  the  fame,  that  then  it  fhall  and  may  be  law- 
ful for  any  fuch  Collector,  by  Virtue  of  a  Warrant  under  the  Hand  and 
Seal  of  any  Juftice  of  the  Peace  for  the  City  or  County  where  fuch 
Offender  (hall  dwell  or  refide,  who  by  Virtue  of  this  Aft  are  Required 
and  Authorized  to  grant  and  iitue  forth  fuch  Warrant,  to  levy  the  fame 
by  Diftrefs  and  Sale  of  fuch  Perfon  or  Perlbns  Goods  and  Chatties,  re- 
turning the  Over-plus,  if  any  be,  to  the  Owners,  the  Sum  altered,  and 
Charges  of  Diftrefs  and  Sale  being  firft  deducted.  And  that  where  any 
oftheGoods  and  Chattels  fhall  be  diftrained  for  any  of  the  Atfefments 
and  Rates  aforefaid,  and  the  Owner  of  the  laid  Goods  fhall  not  within  five 
days  next  after  fuch  Diftrefs  taken,  and  notice  thereof,  with  the  caufe 
of  fuehj&king  left  at  the  Houfe,  or  Other  moft  known  place  where  the 
diftrefs  wa$  made,  come  and  pay  to  fhe  Collector  and  Receiver  of  the 
Afleffment  aforefaid,  that  then  after  fuch  Diftrefs,  and  notice  as  afore- 
faid, and  expiration  of  the  faid  five  days,  the  Collector,  or  perfon  di- 
ftraming  floaH  and  may  caufe  the  Goods  and  Chattels  fo  diftrained,  to 
be  appraifad  bv  two  fworn  Apprailers,  to  appraife  the  fame  truely, 
according  to  the  beft  of  their  Underftandings,ana  after  fuch  appraifemcnt 
fliali  and  may  lawfully  carry  and  drive  the  faid  Goods  and  Chatteb  fo 

diftrained, 


diftrained,  into  any  County  or  Town  throughout  the  Province,  and  the 
faid  Goods  and  Chattel*  fhall  and  may  there  lawfully  (ell  for  'the  beflr 
Price  can  begotten  for  the  fame,  toward  iatisfaction  of  the  Rate*  afore- 
ftid,  and  or  the  Charges  of  fuch  Dutrefs,  Appraifcment  and  Sale,  giving 
the  Over- plus  to  the  Ovvners. 

And  alfo,  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefaid,  That  if 
tny  Mayor,  Alderman  or  Juftice  of  the  Peace  within  this  Province, 
who  are  hereby  Required,  Impowered  and  Authorized  to  take  effectual 
care  that  this  AcVand  every  Article  and  Claufe  therein  be  duely  executed, 
according  to  the  true  intent  and  meaning  thereof,  fhall  deny;  neglect, 
refufeor  delay  to  do,  perform,  futlfill  and  execute  all  and  every  or  any 
the  Duties,  Powers  and  Authorities,  by  this  Aft  required  and  im- 
powered, by  h  m  or  them  to  be  done,  pertorniid,  failftikd  and  executed, 
and  (hall  thereof  be  convicted  before  the  Governoar  and  C  until,  or 
before  any  of  their  Majefties  Courts  of  Redord  within  thit  Provincei 
he  or  they  (ball  fiaTer  fuch  pain,  by  Pine  and  Imprifbnment,  as  by 
thedifcretion  of  the  faid  Governor  ana  Council,  and  the  J  uft  ices  of  the 
laid  Courts,  fhall  be  adjudged. 

And  be  it  further  enacted  by  the  Authority  aforefeid,  That  if  any 
'Action,  Bill,  Plaint  or  Information  (hall  be  brought,  moved  or  profe- 
cuted  at  any  time  hereafter  againft  any  Perfon  or  Perfons,for  any  Matter, 
Claufe  or  Thing,  done  or  acted  in  purfuance  or  execution  of  this  Act, 
fuch  Perfon  or  Perfons  (b  fued  or  proiecuied  in  any  Court  whatfbever, 
fliall  and  may  plead  the  general  Ilfue,  Not  Gatttyy  and  give  this  Act, 
and  thefpecial  Mittor  in  Evidence;  and  if  the  PlantifF  or  Profecutor 
fhall  be  tfon-futted,  or  forbear  further  Profecutton,  or  fuf&r  Dilcon- 
tinuance  or  Verdict  to  pais  againft  him,  the  Defendant  or  Defendants 
lhall  recover  Treble  Cofts,  for  which  they  fhall  have  the  like  Remedy, 
as  in  cafe  where  Cofts  by  the  Law  are  given  to  Defendants. 

Provided  always,  That  no  Major,  Aider-man  or  J  u  ft  ice  of  the  Peace 
jhall  be  troubled ,  fued,  profecuted  or  molefted  for  any  Cmhfion, 
Ofence  or  Neglect  by  virtue  of  this  Act,  but  within  the  fpace  of  -on© 
year  after  fuch  OmifRon,  Offence  or  Neglect,  and  not  at  any  Time  here- 
after, any  thing  contained  herein  to  the  contrary  hereof  in  any  wife  not* 
withftanding. 

Alv^ycs  provided,  and  be  it  further  Enacted  by  the  Authority  afore* 
faid,  That  the  (everal  Collectors  of  each  refpectide  City  and  County, 
as  aforefaid,  (hall  have  liberty  to  pay  the  feveral  and  refpedtive  Sums* 
aueffed,  as  aforefaid,  at  the  day  aforefaid,  in  currant  Money  at  New-Tork9 
©rfor  want  thereof  in  good  fufrtcient  and  merchantable  Provifions,  at 
the  Rates  and  Prices  hereafter  fpecified  andcxpreiTed,  to  wit,  good  mer- 
chantable Pork  at  the  Rates  of  fifty  Shillings  per  Barrel,  the  Barrel  well 
repacked  by  the  fworn  Packer  at  Ntw-Tork9  and  the  Barrel!  containing 
Thirty  One  Gallons  and  half,  Wimchefter  Meafure,  at  leaf^  Beef  at  tho 
Rate  of  Thirty  Two  Shillings  and  Six  Pence  /er  Barrel,  wtll  repackt  by 


the  fworn  Packer  of  New-Ttrk,  aforefaid,  the  Barrel  to  contain  thirty  one 
Gallons  and  a  half,  tVtfickefier.Mca.CurQ,  at  leaf*.  Cood  merchantable 
Winter  Wheat  at  tour  Shillings  per  Bufhei.  Trycd  Talfow  at  four 
pence  hilf  penny  per  Pound. 

Provided  always,  and  be  it  further  Ena&edby  the  Authority  afore- 
faid, That  if  it  (hould  fo  happen  that  his  Excellency,  purluant  to  the 
Limitations  aforefaid,  could  not  effect  to  raife  Co  many  Volunteers  in 
manner  aforefaid,  but  that  for  the  intent  aforefaid  his  Excellency  fhould 
be  conftrained  to  make  proportionable  Detachments  in  the  refpe&ive 
Cities  and  Counties  within  this  Province,  to  compleat  the  Number  of 
the  Forces,  as  aforefaid,  then  it  is  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  this 
A6t,  that  there  (hall  only  be  allowed  &  paid  unto  fuch  ptrlbn  or  perfons 
fo  detached  as  aforefaid,  for  the  fervice  aforefaid,  the  lum  of  Eight 
Pence  per  Diem  for  each  Perfbn  Co  imploycd  as  aforefaid,  and  no  more, 
any  thing  contained  nereis,  or  mentioned  in  the  Eitablifhment  hereunto 
annexed,  in  any  wayes  to  the  contrary  hereof  notwithstanding. 


J»  Efiahlifimettt  for  the  paying  of  the  Officers  and  SouUiers,  together  xvtiU 
the  incident  d  Charges,  vhieb  sre  to  be  ratfed  for  the  Reinforcement  of 
Albany,  &c  from  the  frft  dqof  May,  1695.  unttl  the  ftfl  daj  of 
May.  1694. 

Four  Captains  at  8  /.  per  Diem 
Four  Lieutenants  at  4  /.  per  Diem 
Four  Lieutenants  it  $  s.  per  Dtem 
One  Chyrurgion  It  fli.  6  d.  per  Diem 
OneCommiffiary  for  the  S  tores  per  diem 
One  CommnTtary  for  Muftcr  per  Diem 
Twelve  Sergeants  at  1  /.  6  d.  per  diem 
Twelve  Corporals  at  1  s.  per  diem 
Four  Drums  at  1  s  per  diem 
Four  Clerks  at  1  /.  per  diem 
Four  Montr  offes  at  1  s.  per  diem 
164  private  Ceminels  at  1  s>  per  Sim 


L 

/. 

d. 

01 

12 

00 

00 

16 

00 

CO 

12 

00 

00 

02 

06 

00 

02 

06 

00 

02 

06 

00 

18 

00 

00 

12 

00 

00 

04 

00 

00 

04 

00 

00 

04 

00 

c8 

04 

00 

1? 

1  2 

c6 

/.  I 

For  $65  days  13/.      s.  c6  d.  n                      4991  07  co" 

1 00  private  Centinels  for  ij<;  days  at  12  4                675  00  00 

One  Town  Major  for  365  dayes  at  4*                  ©7$  00  oo 

Incidental  Charges                                       260  12  06 

The  Totall       6000  00  00 


frhmdand  Sold  hp  William  Bradford,  Printer  to  Kjng  William  ami 
£*ee»  Mary,  at  tk  C19  of  Ncw-STork,  1695. 


&  Catalogue  of  jfm 

Eftablifoed  by  the 

Governour  and  Council 

At  the  Humble  Kequeft  of  the 

ASSEMBLY 


For  the  Governour. 

FOr  the  great  Seal  to  every  Patent  for  and  under  L.  SK  D> 

100  Acres,  oo  12  00 
For  1000  Acres  and  upwards  of  Arable  Land,  for  every 

100  Acres.  00  10  09 

For  every  Licenfc  of  Marriage  00  10  00 

For  his  Hand  and  Seal  to  Letters  of  Adrruniftration,  00  10  00 

For  a  Certificate  of  Denization,  00  10  00 

For  a  Certificate  of  Naturalization,  00  10  00 
For  a  Certificate  That  a  VefTel  was  built,  or  belongs  to 

their  Majefties  <Subjeds,  00  10  00 
For  every  Certeficate  under  the  Governours  Hand  and 

<Seal  to  go  beyond  Sea,  00  to  00 

For  every  Hue -and -Cry,  oo  oj  00 

For  a  Lifence  to  purchale  Land  of  the  Indian /,  o*  00  00 

For  a  Bill  of  Health,  00  12  00 
For  the  great  Seal  to  a  Confirmation  for  renewing  a 

Patent,  00  12  00 


A 


The 


[   2  1 


The  Secretary's  FEES. 

FOr  a  Patent  for  a  Houfe,  Lot  or  Confirmation  of 
Land  formerly  poflefTed, 
For  a  Patent  for  New  Land,  for  and  under  i  oo  Acres, 
And  above  100  Acres,  2  a  per  hundred  ylcresmore, 
For  a  Patent  for  a  New  Townfhip, 
For  a  Confirmation  of  a  Townfhip, 
For  z  Warrant  to  Surrey  Land, 
For  Recording  a  Will,  Inventary,  &e.  under  24  Lines, 
For  every  Sheet  more, 

For  every  Letter  of^  Adminiftration  of  100/.  or  under, 
For  the  Certificate  of  a  Probate  of  a  Will, 
For?  Certificate  of  Letters  of  Naturalization  or  De- 
nization, 

ForaPafsto  Europe,  of  a  Ship  of  $0  Tuns, 
And  upwards  to  100  Tun, 
And  above  100  Tun, 

For  the  fame  to  the  Wefi-hdies ,tQ  pay  for  the  proportion 

For  a  Certificate  that  a  VelTel  was  built  here,  and  belong- 
ing to  their  Majefties  Subjects,  00    06  00 
Tor  every  Petition  to  theGovernour  and  Council,  and 

Order  thereon,  00    06  00 

For  a  Lifence  of  Marriage,  oq    12  00 

For  a  Certificate  of  any  matter  under  the  Governour's 

Hand  and  Seal,  00    06  00 

For  a  Hue  -  and  -  Cry,  00    0  j 

For  a  Lifence  to  purchafc  Land  of  the  tndians,  00  c6 

For  a  B\  11  of  Health,  00    qi5  co 

For  all  Bonds,  00 
For  Copying  every  thing  Recorded  in  the  Secretary's 
Office,  firft  Sheet  containing  24  Lines,  eight  Words 

to  a  Line,  00 

For  every  Sheet  more,  00   oi  06 

For  a  Quietus  of  an  Adminiftration,  00  qO  00 
For  every  Commiifion,  where  there  is  a  Sallary  er  Fee? 

allowed,  00   06  00 


Oj[  00 
Qt 

°j  OO 

0$  00 


The 


Fees  for  the  Court  of  4.0  5.  or  under. 


Fir  the  Summons, 
For  ferving  the  Summons, 
For  the  Judgment, 
For  the  Summons  for  Evidence, 
For  ferving  the  fame, 
For  the  Jury  for  the  fame, 


I.  s.  d. 

00  00  09 

00  00  09 

00  01  00 

00  00  06 

00  00  06 

00  q6  09 


Fees  for  the  Juftices  in  or  out  of  Seffions. 

FVery  Warrant  of  Appearance,  o    I  6 

The  Juftices  Clerk  for  a  Bond,  o    i  6 

05  Taking  Bayl  in  Court,  or  out,  oaf 

2  Acknowledging  a  Deed  of  Sale,  o    2  $ 

^  I  A  Lifence  for  felling  Drink,  o    f  o 

I  The  Clerk,  for  a  Sond  f  or  the  feme*  4   *  ? 

The  Judges  and  Juftices  Fees  for  the  Court  of 

Common  Pleas. 

A Ll  Anions,  from  40  Shillings  to  twenty  Pound;  o    %  6 

From  twenty  Pound  and  upward,  050 

Every  Judgment  of  Court,  016 

Signing  an  Execution,  006 

Sl£  ning  a  Bill  of  Coft,  o    q  6 

Admittance  of  a  Guardian,  q    f  o 

Proving  of  a  Will,  o   .3  o 

A  Certificate  for  the  fame  to  the  Secretary's  Office  at 

Ncw-Tork,  016 

Acknowledging  Satisfaction  upon  Record,  016 


O 
V* 


O 


Fees  for  the  Clark  of  the  Seffions  and 
Common  Pleas. 

A Writ  or  Capias,  0    t  f> 

Filing  a  Declaration,  009 
A  Copy  of  a  Declaration,  if  required,  every  Sheet  con- 
taining 1 5  Lines,  8  Words  to  u  Line,  o   o  6 
Entrirjg  every  Attion,  o   c  9 
Every  Venire,  o    %  o 

hvery 


O 


C  4  3  £  a  4 

Every  Subpoena,  009 

Entring  a  Verdict,  009 

Entring  Judgment,  o    1  0 

Execution,  015 
Coppying  of  the  Records,  for  each  Sheet,  containing 

1 5  Lines,  and  eight  Words  to  a  Line,  006 

Entry  Rule  or  Order  of  Court,  009 

Reading  a  Petition,  006 

Anfwer  thereon,  006 

With-dawing  an  Action,  o    1  6 

A  Scire  facias,  o    1  o 

A  Habeas  Corpus,  016 

Every  Recognizance,  o    1  o 

A  Superfedeas,  o    1  6 

Searching  the  Records  within  one  Year,  006 

Every  Year  backwards  3  d.  more,  o   o  3 

Entring  a  Plea,  o   o  9 

The  Sheriffs  Fees  for  the  Courts  of  Seffions  and 

Common  Pleas. 

CErving  a  Writ,  taking  into  Cuftody,  and  Bail  Bond, 

without  any  pretence  for  hiding  in  the  County,  060 

Returning  a  Writ,  o    1  o 

A  Venire,  o    $  o 

Returning  the  fame,  o  x 


o 

u. 


erving  an  Execution  under  a  hundred  Pound,  ©    $  o 

Every  Ten  Pound  more,  o    1  0 

Serving  a  Writ  of  PolTeflion,  012  o 

Scire  facias  {erving,  and  Return,  o    j  o 

Every  Perfon  committed  into  the  common  Prifon,  030 

The  Cryer  or  Marfhals  Fees  for  the  Seffions  and 

Common  Pleas. 

C Ailing  a  Jury,  each  Caufe,  o    i  o 

Calling  every  Witnefs,  0  4J 

Every  Verdict,  0    o  9 

Calling  each  Action,  0    1  o 


G 
u. 


ThePerfon  that  (hall  Ring  the  Bell  or  beat  the  Drum, 
each  A&iofl  depending  in  Court,  0  o 

Every  Jury  -man  each  Action,  0  1 


o 


o 


The 


t*3 

Council  and  Attorneys  Fees. 


for  Attorneys  Fees,  p   g  * 

For  Pleading  each  Caufe,  060 

Fees  for  the  Judges  of  the  Supr^am  Court. 

'  I  *AHng  Ball  on  a  Capi  Corpus  y                            ^    _  ^ 

1   Allowance,  and  taking  Bail  on  a  Writ  of  Error,     o   6  a 
Taking  Bail  on  a  tMest  Corpus^  060 

A  Superledeas,,                                                   f>    t  6 

Acknowledging  a  Deed  to  be  Implied,                      o    6  a 

Admitting  of  a  Guardian,                                  *>    6  0 

Sigaiqg  a  Bill  of  Co  its,                                       o    1  o 

A  Difcontinuance,                                            ©    1  © 

Q  A  Prohibition-,                                                 0    ^  ^ 

Lifencsng  a  Perfbn  be  an  Attorney,                        o    t  0 

All  Attioasof  Debt  above  20  to  100  frouncls,            ©    f  © 

One  Hundred  Pounds  and  upwards,                         ©  to  © 
All  A&ionsof  Aflault  and  Battery,  Falft  Imprifonmeit, 
Defamation,  Actions  of  Trefpafs,  and  all  other 

Perfbnal  Actions,                                          ft  10  4 
Al  Preferments,  Informations,  aad  Indictments  in 

Criminal  Matters.                                         o  to  © 

jAdionsof  Ejectment,                                     o  to  o 

Clarks  Fees  for  the  Supream  Court. 

Filing  a  Declaration, 
Copy  thereof,  if  required,  each  Sheet  of  1 5  Lines, 
S  Words  to  a  Line, 
Entring  all  manner  of  Pleas,  per  Sheer, 
Entring  a  Ve:di&  and  Judgment, 
I  All  manner  of  Executions, 
I  Copy  of  the  Records,  for  each  5heet, 
e£  A  Rule  of  Court, 
O  Reading  a  Petition, 
fa-  An  Order  upon  it, 
Copy  of  it, 

Entring  Satisfaction  upon  Record;, 
"With-drawing  an  Action, 
Fverv  Deed  Acknowledged, 
AH  Recognizances, 
A  Prohibition, 
Searching  the  Records, 


6 

i  € 

0 

b  6 

0 

0  6 

0 

x  • 

0 

1  6 

0 

0  6 

fi 

s  0 

9 

0  * 

0 

1  0 

0 

t  0 

0 

1  0 

c 

*  S 

ft 

*  r" 

0 

•  0 

1*1 


O 


The  Sheriffs  Fees  for  the  Supream  Court. 

.  CErving  a  Writ  or  Capias,  taking  intoCuftody,  and  Bail  / 
'  ^Bond,without  any  pretence  for  Riding  in  the  County,  o 

The  Venire,  Facias  and  Return, 

cervingan  Execution  under  a  hundred  Pound, 

Every  Ten  Pound  more, 

Serving  a  Writ  of  Pofleflion, 

Serving  a  Scire  facias,  and  Return, 


o 
o 
o 
o 
o 


s. 
6 

? 

5 
i 

12 

3 


d 

o 
6 
o 
o 
o 
o 


The  Marlhai  Of  Cryers  Fees. 


J  pAlling 


each  A&ion, 
Calling  every  Jury, 
\  Swearing  every  Witncfs, 


c  c  9 
o  i  o 
o  o 


Fees  for  the  Mayors  Court, 

For  fixing  the  City  Seal, 


c   j  o 


The  Clarks  Fees  for  the  Mayor's  Court, 

AN  Arreft,  Attachment  or  Summons,  o  i 

Recording  a  Declaration,  o  i 

Copy  thereof,  if  required,  ©  i 

Entring  and  Recording  the  Anfwer,  o  i 

Copy  thereof,  if  required,  o  i 

Order  of  Court,  o  o 

Copy  thereof,  if  required,  o  o 

Entring  a  Judgment,  o  2 

Copy  thereof,  if  reqnired,  ©  1 

q  Execution,  o  1 

u '  A  Copy  thereof,  if  required,  c  o 

Reading  and  Entring  a  Petition,  0  1 

A  Copy  thereof,  if  required,  0  0 

A  Warrant  to  fummons  a  Jury,  each  A&ion,  o  1 

Wnh-drawing  an  A&ion,  o  i 
Entring  and  Recording  Bargains  and  Sales  of  Lands, 
Houfes,  Wills,  Adminiltrarions,  and  other  Wi kings 

paffed  in  Court,  not  above  2  Pages,  o  2 

Every  page  more,  o  o 


e 

6 
6 
o 

o 

9 

/ 
o 

o 

6 

9 
o 

9 

o 
o 


6 
6 
A 


o 


£73 

/.  ».  d 

Certificate,  o  i  6 

A  Sstre  Facias,  o  i  6 


An  Hibtre  Facias  Fojjef/tomm,  o    I  6 

Licenles  for  Ion-keepers,  Victuallers  and  Retailers,  026 

A  Subpaena  for  Witneflfes,  four,  or  under,  e    1  6 

If  more,  j  d.  for  each  Perlbn  fubpaened,  003 

'Entring  an  Allowance  for  zHtkas  Corpus,  o    1  6 

/i  Copy  of  the  Records,  per  Sheet,  006 


O 


at 

o 


The  Sheriffs  Fees  for  the  Mayors  Court 

EVery  Arreft  and  Return,  025 

Summons  and  Return,  016 

Every  Bail  Bond,  010 
fcvery  Perlbn  that  (hall  be  arretted  and  committed  to 

Prifon  for  want  of  Bail,  or  not  bailable,  ©    J  p 

Returning  of  a  Jury  in  each  Caufe,  016 

Every  Caule  in  Court,  o   1  p 

Every  Execution  that  {hall  be  lerved,  if  under  100  /.  o    5  p 

Every  10  L  more,  one 

The  Marfhalls  Fees. 


CUmmomng  a  Jury  in  each  Caufe>  o  1  $ 

Every  Witnefc  in  Court,  •  o  j 

Calling  every  A&ion,  p  a  4| 

Every  Frifoner  committed  to  Goal,  «  x  p 


Bell  Ringers  Fees. 

^jT]  Very  Prilbner  eommited,  O    1  o 

°|JG  Every  Adion  in  Court  0  p   p  4* 


The  Jurys  Fees. 

Very  Caufe  in  the  City,  for  each  Man  on  fai<3 
Jury,  p   p  9 


C  8  ] 


Fees  to  be  Received  in  rh 

Cuftom  - 


e. 


By  their  Majefties  Colleftor  and  Receiver  General 
of  the  Province  of  3\(ew  -  Tork. 

ENntry  of  every  Ship  or  other  Veflel,  burthen  fixty  t.  s.  eC 

Tuns  or  upwards,  inwards  or  outwards,         0  12  o 

Every  Poft  Entry  of  the  fame, ,                            o  06  o 

Lifence  to  load  or  unload,                                   o  100 

Every  Bill  of  Sight,                                          o  100 

Every  Bill  of  Store,                                        o  04  o 

Every  Permit  or  Warrant  of  Entry,                      o  01  o 

O)  Every  Poft  of  the  fame,  q  0q  6 
u.  Every  Certificate  of  Goods  Landed,  where  Bond  is 

j.  given  abroad,                                              o  10  o 

Every  other  Certificate,                                     o  of  o 
The  Jerkin  and  Clearing  the  fame  in  or  out,  and  com- 
paring the  Merchants  Entry,  and  the  Matters  Invoice 

or  Outvoice,                                                o  06  o 

A  Cocquet,  Let-Pafs  or  Tranfire,                        *o  06  o 

Ships  or  other Veffels burthend  under  60  Tuns, 
and  more  than  20.  Trading  into  or  out  of 
this  Province, 

EVery  Entry  in  or  out,  060 

Lifence  to  load  or  unload,  050 

Every  Poft  entry  of  the  fame,  030 

A  Bill  of  Store,  026 

U  A  Permit  or  Warrant  of  Entry.  o    1  c 

C  Every  Poft  of  the  fame,  006 

Every  Bond,  026 

A  Certificate,  o    3  q 

Clearing  and  Jerking  the  fame,  ice.  in  or  out,  040 

A  Let-Pafs,  Cocquet  or  Trantire,  030 


C  93 


Sloops  or  Veffels  of  20  Tuns,  or  under,  coming 
or  going  put  of  this  Province. 

/.    3[.  d. 

FOr  every  Entry  in  or  out,  o    3  <=> 

Lifence  to  load  or  unload,  o    1  6 

A  Pod  Entry,  0    1  6, 

A  Bill  of  Store,  0    2  ° 

A  Bill  of  Sight,  o    2  5 

A  Permit  or  Warrant  of  Entry,  o    1  o 

A  Poft  of  the  fame,  006 

A  Bond,  o    2  5 

A  Jerking  and  Clearing  the  lame  in  or  out,  ch.  026 

Cocquet,  Let-Pafs,  and  Tranfire,  o    j  o 


O 

u. 


Sloops,  &c.  Trading  within  this  Province,  to- 
wards the  SoundjConneEiicutjip  Hudfons  River 
and  to  Eaft-farfey, 

\  N  Entry  in  or  out,  009 


jilence  to  load  or  unload,  o    o  42 

|PafTand  Clearing,  009 
Permit  or  Warrant  of  Entry,  0    o  41 


Other  Fees  taken  in  the  Cuftom-Houfe. 

FOr  the  Sight  of  every  Certificate  of  Bond  given, 
and  entring  the  fame  in  the  Kin^s  Books,  026 
For  Cancelling  a  Bond,  filing  a  Certificate,  and  making 
it  returned  in  the  Kings  Books,  o    z  6 

Provided  alwayes,  That  no  other  Fees  fliall  be  taken  for  or 
concerning  the  Naval  Office,  Tonnage,  or  the  enumerated  Com- 
modities, or  any  other  thing  which  relates  to  Shipping,  upon  any 
pretence  whatsoever. 

Clark 


2 


Clark  of  the  Affemblies  Fees. 

REading  and  entring  every  Petition                 o    3  c 

Entring  aa  Anfwer  thereof                         a    3  © 

Recording  faid  Petition,  if  required,  ©  6  © 
The  Clarks  Attendance  on  the  Houfe,  all  Committees, 

and.  drawing  up  Refolves,  &c.  per  Dim,              o  fio  © 

Theperufal  of  any  A&,  or  each  Days  Minutes,  <a  b  <$ 
A  Copy  of  each  dayes  Minutes,  026 
An  Order  of  the  Houfe  to  the  Sergeant  at  Anns,  to 

bring  any  Perfon  before  the  Houfe,                     o   £  © 

Entring  faid  Order,  and  Copy,                           0    3  6 


The  Sergeant  at  Arms  Fees. 

AN  Arreft  in  the  To  wo,  o  to  o 
In  the  Country  for  the  firft  ten  Mifes  goiog  and 

qi    coming,  a  10  o 

tot  Every  Mile  more,  o   a  6 

I  Every  day  a  Prifoner  undifoharge^dl  03© 

fThe  Return  of  aa  Order,  02© 


2 


The  Door-keepers  Fees. 

Very  dayes  Attendance, 


q  4  • 

The  Coroners  Fees. 

o6  \  Slewing  of  a  dead  Body  not  flain  by  miT-ad- 
2  V  veature, 


S3  « 


The  Surveyors  Fees, 

&  purveying  a  piece  of  Land,  if  under  *  00  Acres,  s    o  c 

Oi      If  more,  for  every  day  he  Surveys,  o  12  o, 

^ 'if  he  imp loyes  any  Perfon  toafiilihim,  ptr  Diem7  o    3  o 


L  «  3 

L  *  d 

E^yy       of  Ground  in  the  Town  r  not  exceeding 

c||Eif  «mre-fciairhree  Acre?,  2  s.  per  Acre,  020 
u  j]  TaasttliE^  Orarges,  w  hen  .he  does  not.fur ve'y ,  ^6  r  Diew,  a  10  o 

To  the  Attorney  General  for  Fees. 

IJff  dmsmsss^.  Cmkv7  qb    jo  •» 

Inn  CagniBffill  Csufes,  c  j    00  00 

C^,-«^Vfa#-Tojik,  September  20.  1 69  3.      ffe      2ft<r  of  their 

Majefties  Reigtf. 

nPHe  HcnriSc  «ff  Reprefentatives  for  Their  Majefties  Proviace 
*■  ©f  J5fe«>-3(W^  do  order,  That  this  Catalogue  of  Fees  be  fent 
c^st£S5  tdfeeGEFraraiBfur  and  Council,  praying  his  Excellency  that  He 
easy  dW  «2dc  lame. 

%  Or</dr  <7^  ffo  Honfe  of  ReprefentAtivt5% 

James  Graham,  Speaker. 


tfrieBid  and  3nH  by  William  Bradford,  Printer  to  Their  Maje^ieSj 
KingBPilbwaad  Queen  M*rjh  at  the  fiible  in  Nkm-Twft%  1695. 


* 


I' 


